Correlation between Serology and Molecular Diagnostic Tests for HCV in Children Receiving Blood or Blood Products Experience of Single Institute, Wasit Province-Iraq 2016 Faraj Safa A.1, Ansaf Ahmed I.2, Ghali Hasanein H.3, Mohsen Naeem m.4 1MD Oncology Unit, Children's Welfare Teaching Hospital 2MD Department of Pediatrics, Wasit University, College of Medicine, Wasit, Iraq 3MD Oncology Unit, Children's Welfare Teaching Hospital, Baghdad University College of medicine, Baghdad, Iraq 4M. Sc. Biotechnology, Al kahrama Teaching Hospital, Wasit, Iraq Online published on 20 March, 2019. Abstract Studies about transfusion transmitted HCV infections are limited and very important to make insight about this burden health problem which are the main route of transmission for HCV in the developing countries and to improve blood banks practices for blood donations by implementation of maximally sensitive screen for HCV. Patients and Methods A cross sectional study done at the hemato-oncology center in Al-Karama Teaching Hospital, Wasit-Iraq. The patients included have different Hemato-oncological diseases over a period from the 1st of January 2016 to the 31st of May 2016. The patients were classified according to age, sex, disease and number of blood or blood products transfusion. HCV serological screen done by specific enzyme immunoassays (EIA) antibody detection and by Molecular Nucliec Acid Amplification Technique (NAT) viral load in Al-Karama Teaching Hospital Lab. Results 59 patients included in this study. 61% of them was male, 50% of them were below 10 years of age. Leukemia, hemophilia and Von Willebrand diseases constitute around 70% of the studied patients. About 70% of the patients were received more than 25 time as blood or blood products before time of investigation. 13 (22%) of the studied patient were positive for HCV by serology and 17 (28.8%) of them were positive for HCV by molecular viral load. From the 13 patients with Serologically positive test, two of them were negative in molecular viral load study. While the serological study was negative in 40 patients, six of them were positive in viral load study. Seventeen patients were diagnosis to have hepatitis C virus by viral load study, eleven of them were serologically positive. This difference was statistically significant with P value 0.0001. Conclusion The methods of blood screen in Iraq, as other developing countries still mainly depend on serology which not enough to give safe blood. There are urgent needs to adapt increasingly sensitive serology with introduction of Molecular Nucleic Acid Amplification Technology (NAT) side to side in blood donations screen. Top Keywords Hepatitis, viral load. Blood transfusion. Top |