Analysis of the Reentry Test Results of the HCV Deferred Donors

Background: The donor deferral registry (DDR) program has been operating since 2004. The donors who registered in the DDR are prohibited from donating blood. But some of them can enter the eligible donor group if they pass a reentry test. We analyzed the results of the reentry tests for the HCV deferred donors. Methods: A total of 587 donor samples were tested during 18 months (July. 2007∼December. 2008). Anti-HCV (ARCHITECT HCV, Abbott, Wiesbaden, Germany), RIBA (LG HCD confirm, LG Life Sciences, Daejeon, Korea), and HCV RNA (PCR with COBAS AMPLICOR HCV, Roche, Molecular Systems, Inc Branchburg, USA) were used for detection. The donors showing negativity for all the test items were released from the DDR. Results: Among the 587 subjects, 466 (79.4%) of the donors who showed negative results on the tests were released from DDR. The donors who showed variable positive results for the tests were not released. Only 15 donors of 121 donors showed positive or indeterminate (ID) results according to the anti-HCV, RIBA and the PCR results. Conclusion: Those people with RIBA ID with negative results in anti-HCV and PCR results were unnecessarily kept on the retained in DDR unnecessarily. The algorithm of the reentry test for HCV deferred donors seems to needs to be reevaluated to for the saveing eligible donors.