Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Jos National Blood Transfusion Service, North Central Zonal Centre, Jos, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author E-mail: ddamulak@yahoo.com

Accepted 25 November, 2015

Introduction: Where blood donors are mobilized in resource poor setting like ours, the inadequacy and irregular supply of reagents for the screening of transfusion transmissible pathogens become the major limitation. Aim: This study was to determine the implication of pre ELISA rapid testing of HBsAg on the management of blood bank resources. Method: Donated blood units from suitable first time voluntary blood donors were screened in two groups for hepatitis B surface antigen. One group was screened by ELISA method straight, while the other was first screened by skytec rapid test strip and the only units that reacted negatively were subjected further to ELISA test. Results: Of the two thousand units screened straight with ELISA, 282 (14.1%) were positive for HBsAg. One hundred and eighty (10.1%) donor units of 1784 were rapid test positive for HBsAg. Thirty nine (2.4%) of the 1604 rapid test negative units were positive for HBsAg when further subjected to ELISA screening. A total of 219 (12.3%) units of the 1784 units screened in the second group reacted HBsAg; 180 (82.2%) at strip test and 39 (18.8%) at the ELISA screening of rapid tested negative units. Conclusion: A test protocol that applies ELISA screening on the pre rapid strip screened negative donor blood for HbsAg could optimize the utilization of scare blood bank resource

Keywords: Screening, Donor blood, Resource management.

How To Cite This Article:

Damulak Obadiah Dapus, Ogunbiyi Bumi, Rumji Elisha. HbsAg Rapid Testing of Donor Blood Prior to ELISA Testing in North Central Nigeria: The Implications on Limited Blood Bank Resource Management Swift Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences 1(4), pp. 023-026.