Impact of nucleic acid testing for hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and human immunodeficiency virus on the safety of blood supply in Italy: a 6‐year survey

Abstract

NAT implementation has improved blood safety by reducing the risk of entering 2.5 HCV and 1.8 HIV infectious units per million donations into the blood supply. The yield of NAT in detecting infectious blood before transfusion was higher for HBV than for HCV or HIV. However, the benefit of HBV NAT in terms of avoided HBV-related morbidity and mortality in blood recipients needs to be further evaluated.