Screening For Blood Transfusion Transmissible Viruses In Resource Limited Settings

Transmission of viruses such as HIV, HBV and HCV through blood transfusion has been effectively reduced in resourceful countries due to organized central blood transfusion service, which applies stringent donor selection criteria, screening methods involving detection of viral nucleic acids and pathogen inactivation. This very costly but rewarding venture has remained difficult in countries with limited health budget such as Nigeria. There is poor donor mobilization capacity with difficulty in implementing donor selection, use of antibody only testing strategies, which leaves large numbers of early infection undetected and lack of organized central blood transfusion service. Many especially the primary and secondary health care centers are yet to implement screening for these viruses and pathogen inactivation methods are not available. There is need for the new developing Nigerian National Blood Transfusion Service (NNBTS) which is supported by Safe Blood for Africa in South Africa (SBAF) to address this problem at the outset if we are to achieve the risk reduction required especially as many of these viruses are endemic in our environment.