BloodSafety

Apollo Chennai Adopts NAT for Safe Blood

Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) facility was launched in Apollo Hospitals blood bank, Chennai. The facility was launched by Kanimozhi, Member of Rajya Sabha at the hospital premises. NAT has been made mandatory for all donors blood prior to blood transfusion. Speaking after the launch, Kanimozhi said, "I hope the facility extends to other hospitals, including the Government hospitals in the future for the benefit of the public."

"NAT screening ensures risk free safest blood to the patients," said Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group. Calling NAT as "one of the path breaking inclusion in transfusion medicine," Dr Rema Menon, Blood Bank Medical Officer, said "NAT identifies the DNA/ RNA of viruses and thereby reduces the window period infection." Currently, the facility is being used in the Hospital to detect Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B and HIV infections in the donors' blood.

The Hospital uses FDA approved Procleix Ultrio-NAT developed by Chiron. The test results can be obtained in five to six hours. "Individual Donor Testing (ID-NAT ) is a diagnosis method for early identification of the infection," said Dr Rema Menon and added, "In traditional technology, Hepatitis C may go undetected up to 11 weeks, but the same donor can be identified infected in less than five days."

ID-NAT diagnosis can be availed at the hospital for a fee of Rs 1,000. The NAT screening has already been successfully implemented in Apollo Hospitals, Delhi. While the ID-NAT screening has been made mandatory in many countries in Europe and South East Asia, it is yet to become prominent in India. Cost factor could be one of the reasons for this. "The establishing of a NAT lab could come close to a crore," claimed Dr Rema Menon. Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group and Ajaykumar Bhatt, India Business Manager, Chiron Limited were also present during the launch.

EH News Bureau