What tests does the Australian Red Cross Blood Service perform on donated blood?
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service tests each donation for ABO (blood type) and Rhesus groups (eg, Positive or negative). We also test for five transfusion-transmissible infectious diseases (HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, hepatitis B, Human T Lymphotropic Virus- HTLV, and syphilis) with seven different tests. Specifically, we test for antibody to hepatitis C, the hepatitis B surface antigen, antibody to both HIV-1 and HIV-2, antibody to HTLV types I and II and antibodies to syphilis. The Australian Red Cross Blood Service to further test all donations for HIV-1 and hepatitis C RNA using Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT). This process is different from traditional testing because it looks for the actual presence of viruses, in this case HIV and HCV. Most other tests detect the presence of antibodies, which are the body’s response to an infection and which take time to develop. NAT provides an opportunity to further improve the safety of the blood supply by reducing the ‘window period’, which
