Subscribe to Search results

Professor Tedder and his colleagues were already thinking that they needed to get away from RIA to EIA.

Published on:

Dr Brian McClelland stated he wished there to be "no doubt of the extreme pressure being placed on the transfusion services to ensure that no 'high risk donors' donate blood - a task which is essentially quite impossible unless some form of screening test is available."

Published on:

Regional transfusion directors in Scotland had contemplated introducing an American test in the absence of progress toward a UK choice until the SHHD put a stop to that because they had given assurances to the DHSS that Scotland would follow its lead.

Published on:

There were delays owing to changes in direction for screening testing kits from RIA to ELISA test kits following the onboarding of Wellcome. Dr Brian McClelland wrote to Wellcome to express deep concern about the lack of test kits being made available. He emphasised that urgency was required and it was better to have some testing in place rather than none at all.

Published on:

Pharmaceutical companies planning to market AIDS screening tests in the UK were notified that the Department of Health and Social Security proposed to set up an evaluation programme for investigating the performance of screening test systems.

Published on:

Dr Gunson said in a Central Blood Laboratories Authority meeting that "if the United Kingdom needed to be converted for enzyme testing it would pose a serious problem for the continuance of RIA testing. It was therefore considered vital that a British test be developed."

Published on:

Dr Smithies said that the Department of Health was "taking all practical steps" to introduce HTLV-3 testing for people with haemophilia and also added that the evaluation was still at the preliminary stage of "arranging that all tests for antibody to HTLV-III should be evaluated in order that recommendation can be made of the most suitable to use in the blood transfusion services and also by the NHS.".

Published on:

A report on the results of the Food and Drug Administration evaluation of HTLV-3 antibody screening tests stated that a large number of false positive tests were liable to be produced, and underlined a need for there to be a comparative evaluation of the tests.

Published on:

The Department of Health and Social Security maintained its stance on "firm plans to evaluate all the anti-HTLVIII kits that are marketed in the UK and this work will be started as soon as possible. An evaluation protocol is being devised and when it is ready all companies in the field will be given the opportunity to comment on it."

Published on:

Dr Tedder, Professor Weiss and Professor Adler confirmed that though their test worked reasonably well as a laboratory tool, adequate scaling up was still to be achieved if it was to be used. It was agreed that it would probably be necessary for the Blood Transfusion Service to go ahead and use the first successful test that became available.

Published on:

The Expert Advisory Group on AIDS Screening Tests Sub Group Report on the Introduction of a Test for Antibody to the AIDS Related Virus was published.

Published on:

Alun Williams wrote to Mr Harris and Ms McKessack, correcting John Patten's statement in Parliament that "we hope to have a screening test within a few weeks". Alun Williams stated: "It would be more accurate to say that we hope to begin evaluating screening tests within the next few weeks."

Published on:

The chairman of the EAGA said in a meeting that while it was important to introduce a reliable screening test as soon as possible "an effective evaluation of the tests was essential and should not be rushed". Professor Bloom was the only person who was recorded as expressing concern regarding the delay of introducing a reliable screening test.

Published on:

Professor Bloom, Dr Forbes and Dr Rizza concluded in a letter to The British Medical Officer that three commercial test kits had been approved by the FDA and although there was a small risk of false positives it was felt to be unreasonable to delay testing until that possibility was eliminated.

Published on:

Dr Harris wrote to Professor Bloom in response to his letter detailing concerns that the screening of blood should be introduced as soon as possible. Dr Harris stated that he accepted HTLV-3 testing should be completed as soon as possible, but that the performance of testing kits were variable. He wrote that they should be properly tested before introduction into the BTS and that this approach was supported by members of the EAGA.

Published on:

In a draft submission, circulated in the Department of Health and Social Security, it was recommended selecting a test following evaluation by the Public Health Laboratory Service and field trials in the Blood Transfusion Service. "This may take 5 months to implement" and "It might leave us without a screening test for up to 2 further months", although it was hoped field trials could be brought forward.

Published on:

Dr Acheson's note to John Patten exposed a lack of confidence among scientists at the Public Health Laboratory Service that the suppliers would be able to produce testing kits that were "reliable on a large scale and which would continue to be reliable on the shelf". He went on: "It would be worse to be in the position of having to withdraw a test once introduced than to be in our present position of carefully evaluating the tests."

Published on:

The World Health Organization had concluded at a conference that countries should "Screen, where feasible, potential donors of blood and plasma for antibody to LAV/HTLV-III".

Published on:

By May 1985 both plasma centres and blood banks in the US were testing donations for the presence of HIV antibodies.

Published on:

A draft preliminary report to a Department of Health and Social Security ad hoc group on the evaluation of commercial anti-HTLV-3/LAV assays provided the raw data arising from the initial evaluation for further discussion.

Published on: