Academy
Screening of Blood for Transfusion Transmissible Infections
The Regional Blood Centre, Divisional Headquarters (DHQ) Teaching Hospital, Mirpur, Pakistan, in collaboration with the ISBT Academy, conducted a training workshop on 'Screening of Blood for Transfusion Transmissible Infections' (TTI) from the 10th to 12th of October 2023. 30 participants attended the workshop. This included blood bank managers from the public, private, and NGO sectors, trainee doctors specializing in hematology and transfusion medicine, medical technologists, blood transfusion officers and blood bank technicians.
The objectives of the workshop were to train the existing workforce in the blood banks on the screening techniques available; educate the participants on the quality control criteria used in the TTI screening laboratories, provide an update on the biosafety aspects during the TTI screening and an overall emphasis on the centralized screening in blood centres which is a relatively new concept for the country.
After a welcome address by the Medical Superintendent, Dr. Amir Aziz, the technical sessions began with lectures on national blood safety scenario, V2V transfusion chain, existing and emerging TTIs, screening assays (ICT, ELISA, CLIA, NAT), screening for hepatitis B, C, HIV, syphilis and malaria, routine and emergency screening, national screening strategy and algorithm, nucleic acid testing vs ELISA/CLIA, blood quarantine and release, quality control and quality assurance, and biosafety in blood centres.
Furthermore, the participants had the opportunity to visit the new building of the Regional Blood Centre and commended the hospital administration and pathology department for their dedication to this accomplishment. The participants were provided an opportunity to practically demonstrate the TTI screening techniques in the blood centre.
Pre- and post-workshop/course assessment was done to have a systematic collection and analysis of information to improve participants’ learning. Participants were provided a questionnaire with 25 multiple-choice questions at the beginning and the end of training.
The results of the analyses provided valuable inside information regarding the participants’ learning and effectiveness of teaching. Furthermore, the results will be used to continue improving teaching efforts since the results have shown which topics students had difficulty learning and where the speakers should pay closer attention. Overall, the knowledge after the post-course assessment has been raised from 34.2% to 71.8%.
Figure 1: Pre- and Post workshop/ course assessment results.
The final session was presided over by the Director General of Health, AJK, who expressed gratitude to the participants and speakers for their attendance. He also recognized and praised the organizing team and ISBT for their professional execution of the workshop. The Director General encouraged the participants to implement national standards and guidelines within their blood banks, emphasizing the importance of enhancing blood safety through the adoption of quality-assured screening and biosafety practices. He highlighted the enthusiastic participation from all hospitals and blood bank professionals as highly motivating. In recognition of their contributions, souvenirs and certificates were distributed to the keynote speakers and participants.
