Bhopal: Safer Blood test to detect HIV, Hep, HCV

Bhopal: Blood currently being supplied at hospitals cannot be ascertained to be a 100% free from Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). But this is likely to be changed as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhopal will begin state-of-the-art Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) soon, confirmed AIIMS Bhopal superintendent Dr Manisha Shrivastava. The initiative is supported by National Health Mission (NHM).

“The test brings down the window period from 3 weeks to 48 hours and the blood supplied is a 100% pure because of measures taken such as: voluntary blood collection, pre-donation counselling, thus eliminating high-risk behaviour”, said Dr Shrivastava. Currently Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Elisa) test is undertaken to ascertain HIV, Hepatitis, and other infections.

AIIMS Bhopal will not limit the facility to itself. It is offering to utilise the specialised unit for other government-run hospitals on a ‘hub-and-spoke’ model. Samples can be collected from various locations and a centralised test can be conducted at AIIMS Bhopal.

The measure is extremely useful for patients who are transfusion dependent. “Setting up of NAT at AIIMS Bhopal and Indore Medical college is aimed at exapanding of testing facilities in the MP,” said deapartment of health and family welfare principal secratary Pallavi Jain.

The window period for HIV is three weeks to three months, while for Hepatitis B (HBsAg) and Hepatitis C (HCV) is 6-8 months. This is where NAT comes in handy. The test plays a crucial role in eliminating risk of viruses going undetected as it is a molecular-level test and directly detects the antibody causing organism producing the viruses.