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Anti‐HTLV III ELISA and Western Blot Testing in a Blood Donor Population: Implications for Donor Notification
Author(s) -
Kleinman Steven,
AntonGuirgis Hoda,
Culver B. Dwight,
Taylor Thomas H.,
Prince Harry E.,
Kaplan Harold S.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
vox sanguinis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.68
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1423-0410
pISSN - 0042-9007
DOI - 10.1111/j.1423-0410.1986.tb00231.x
Subject(s) - blood donor , medicine , population , western blot , immunology , antibody , virology , environmental health , biology , genetics , gene
. We have evaluated the western blot (WB) test for distinguishing anti‐HTLV III ELISA‐positive donors who have likely been exposed to HTLV III from those that are false positives. Of 1,955 donors, 26 were positive for anti‐HTLV III by ELISA testing. Only 6 (23%) were positive by WB: 5 of these 6 were male homosexuals with multiple partners and 5 of 6 had low Th/Ts ratios. The WB‐positive donors gave the highest absorbance values in the anti‐HTLV III ELISA assay. The immunologic abnormalities in the WB‐positive donors suggest that they should be notified of their test results. We conclude that basing a donor notification policy on WB results is the optimum public health strategy for blood banks at the present time.