UNITED STATES: Organ Donors to Be Screened for Infections by New Test

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CDC 9-22-11

UNITED STATES: " Organ Donors to Be Screened for Infections by New Test "

Wall Street Journal (09.22.11):: Landro

CDC on Wednesday released new draft guidelines for reducing the risk of HIV and

hepatitis B and C virus transmission through solid organ transplants. In

updating its 1994 recommendations, CDC calls for serologic screening for HIV,

HBV, and HCV; and for more sensitive nucleic acid testing (NAT) for HIV and HCV,

and under certain circumstances for HBV.

While disease transmission through organ transplants are rare, CDC investigated

more than 200 suspected cases from 2007 to 2010, including HIV, HBV, and HCV

infections. Some confirmed transmissions led to the death of recipients.

NAT can pick up newly acquired infections sooner than standard tests measuring

antibodies, which may take months to become evident. NAT can detect infection

within seven days of a patient’s acquiring one. CDC recommends NAT screening for

live donors be administered not longer than seven days prior to the organ’s

removal. For deceased donors, testing should be conducted either before, if

timing allows, or after the organ is procured.

By 2008, about half of the 58 US organ-procurement organizations already

conducted NAT screening for HIV and HCV on some or all donors, found a CDC

study. Such screening is nearly double the cost of antibody testing, although it

represents relatively little of a transplant’s total cost.

The proposal also revises donor risk factors to give clinicians a more thorough

picture of potential risks.

“While recognizing the critical need for organs, our team also wants to ensure

recipients are protected from getting unexpected diseases from the organs they

receive,” said Dr. J. Kuehnert, director of CDC’s Office of Blood,

Organ, and Other Tissue Safety.

For more information about the proposal, published in the Federal Register and

open to public comment for 60 days, visit:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;dct=FR%252BPR%252BN%252BO%252BSR;rpp=1\

0;po=0;D=CDC-2011-0011.