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HIV-1 p24 antigen testing in blood banks: results from Saudi Arabia
S Alamawi1, A Abutaleb, L Qasem
1Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, King Fahad National Guard Hospital, P.O. Box 22490, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia.
British Journal of Biomedical Science
|July 18, 2003
Abstract:
HIV-1 p24 antigen testing was introduced to increase sensitivity in the early detection of HIV infection in blood donors. Since the introduction of HIV-1 p24 antigen testing in Saudi Arabia, we have failed to detect a single positive case. Over a three-year period, only four indeterminates were detected out of 24,654 blood donors. All four proved negative by confirmatory testing. Based on this experience, we believe that resources would be better directed to pooled nucleic acid testing and that p24 serological testing should be abandoned.