By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterTHE NATIONAL Blood Transfusion Service (Blood Bank) is to put in equipment which will allow it to detect HIV and other infections in donated blood within 12 days, halving the time it currently takes to do so, says head of the Blood Bank, Dr. Lundie Richards.
"The aim is to cut the window period (during which the virus can go undetected during screening) from 25 to 12 days, to detect viruses such as HIV earlier and improve on safety," Dr. Richards said yesterday.
He said that over the next year, the Bank plans to get machines used to detect genetic material, which will identify HIV, Hepatitis B and C in blood much earlier than existing equipment. Staff will also be trained and infrastructure put in place, he said.
On Friday, the Ministry of Health said plans to improve blood safety are to be funded with a portion of a US$23 million grant, recently approved for Jamaica by the United Nations Global Fund on Malaria and AIDS.
The UN grant will be given to the island over five years. The island will initially receive US$7 million for the first two years and the rest will come based on the performance of various programmes.
"We are anticipating that the National Blood Transfusion Services' blood safety profile will improve even further with the acquisition of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing equipment and staff training, which will be made possible with the Global Fund grant which has been approved for the scaling up of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention in Jamaica," the Health Ministry said in a release.
Dr. Richards said the planned upgrade in the Blood Bank's screening methods was not connected to the case of Ms. Jennifer Brown, whose lawyers went public with news that she and a 12-year-old boy were reportedly infected while getting blood transfusions. The Ministry has not accepted liability in the boy's case.
Ms. Brown successfully sued the Ministry and was in the process of working out a settlement with the Government via her lawyers, when she died of meningitis in hospital on October 16. She was buried yesterday. Dr. Richards said the issue was discussed before Ms. Brown's infection but would take time to implement because it involves not just the acquisition of three or four PCR machines, but staff would also require training and the Bank would need to create a special sterile infrastructure to house the machines, which are extremely sensitive. All this comes with a high price tag, he said.
"It takes some time to do preparation because we want to improve on safety to ensure that every unit we test is as safe as it can be," Dr. Richards said. "We are overlooking the cost."
In the meantime, the Blood Transfusion Service is being considered to become a Regional Training Centre for blood banking in Latin America and the Carib-bean, the Health Ministry said.
Dr. Richards said the Blood Bank will be helping territories such as Turks and Caicos, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and Belize to look at how they can improve their blood banking service.
"Because of how developed we are, we will be able to lend support," Dr. Richards said. This would involve either other
Caribbean technologists coming to Jamaica or Jamaican technologists visiting them.
He said the new measures at the Blood Bank should be complemented by an increased emphasis on health lifestyles and behaviour change by the public to lessen the chance of infection.
