HIV Seroconversion Resulting from Insensitive Blood Screening Measures

It is estimated that 1 in 450,000 to 1 in 660,000 blood donations in the U.S. are made by donors who are infected with HIV but have not yet seroconverted to HIV-positive status as measured by current viral screening techniques. Currently used techniques include HIV-1 and HIV-2 antibody enzyme immunoassays (EIA), p24 antigen EIA, and nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT); these become positive at approximately 25 days, 14 to 21 days, and 4 to 16 days after infection, respectively. For logistic reasons and cost conservation, NAT is performed on mini-pools of 16 to 24 whole blood donations.

This case study demonstrated direct and unequivocal linkage between the donor's platelets and the recipient's seroconversion. Using stored samples, resea…