Comparison of human immunodeficiency virus and syphilis results in pooled sera versus individual samples of blood donors attending suez canal university hospital

Abstract

Egypt is one of the countries where sexually transmitted diseases like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and syphilis are least prevalent. HIV and syphilis count less than one percent of total Egyptian population. An ELISA protocol for pooling serum samples is simple and may provide a way to reduce the cost and time needed for analysis. This study aimed to investigate the applicability and reliability of testing pooled sera of blood donors for HIV and syphilis compared to testing their individual sera and to assess the cost-effectiveness of this procedure. The study included 75 sera from randomly selected blood donors attending Suez Canal University hospital. Sera were screened by two ELISA kits, HIV Ag-Ab ELISA kit, and syphilis total antibody ELISA kit. Screening protocols were done by two sequential steps. At first, samples in pools of five were screened for both HIV and syphilis then, samples in positive pools were individually retested. There was no significant difference between the mean optical density for samples tested HIV and syphilis positive either individually or in pooled sera. There was no difference between the number of individual sera, tested positive for both HIV and syphilis and their pooled sera results (100 % positivity). There was significant decrease of the mean cost in one pool of 5 samples (16.5 L. E) in comparison to 5 individual samples (82.5 L. E) by HIV ELISA. Also, there was significant decrease of the mean cost in one pool of 5 samples (16 L.E) in comparison to 5 individual samples (80 L.E) by syphilis ELISA. In conclusion, the studied pooling protocol appeared reliable and can save up to 80 % of the cost for testing either HIV or syphilis by regular procedures.