A novel strategy for screening blood donors for syphilis at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Ghana.

ObjectiveTo implement and describe a novel syphilis screening strategy for blood donors. BackgroundThe seroprevalence of syphilis in blood donors is often high in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) although the proportion of infectious donations is probably low. Syphilis screening may not happen at all; or the use of non-specific screening tests, which have high false positive rates, results in many donations being discarded unnecessarily. This can have a critical effect on already inadequate blood supplies. Materials and MethodsBlood donors were screened at the time of donation with an anti-treponemal rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and blood collected irrespective of the result. Units screening negative for syphilis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B and C were released to stock. RDT screen-positive units were re-tested with rapid plasma reagin (RPR) - units testing negative were released to stock and test-positive units discarded. ResultsOf the 2213 blood donors, 182 (82%; 182/2213) screened positive by RDT. In addition, 38 out of these 182 (209%) were RPR positive on post-donation testing. Over 2 months there was a 79% reduction in blood units discarded due to a positive syphilis screen. ConclusionIn other LMIC, this novel strategy can contribute to improving blood safety without jeopardising blood supply.