Safety and testing

We recognise that the Australian community has confidence and trust in the Australian Red Cross Blood Service to have one of the safest blood supplies in the world. It is an important driver in our organisation.

Each time you give blood, we test your donation for ABO (blood type), Rh groups (ie. positive or negative) and red cell antibodies.

We also test all donations for five transfusion-transmissible infectious diseases, using eight different tests:

• HIV/AIDS
• hepatitis B
• hepatitis C
• Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus- HTLV
• syphilis.

Specifically, we test for the hepatitis B surface antigen, antibody to hepatitis C, antibody to both HIV-1 and HIV-2, antibody to HTLV types I and II and antibodies to syphilis.

We also test all donations for HIV-1, hepatitis C and hepatitis B using Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT). This process is different from traditional testing because it looks for the actual presence of viruses, in this case HIV, HCV and HBV. Most other tests detect the presence of antibodies, which are the body's response to an infection and which take time to develop. NAT provides an opportunity to further improve the safety of the blood supply by reducing the 'window period' which is the time between exposure to a virus and the time current tests are able to detect antibodies to the virus.

We also perform a test for malaria on donations from donors who have reported residence in, or travel to, an area with malaria.

We notify donors of any abnormal results on infectious disease and red cell antibody screening once testing is completed, usually within two weeks. The donor is advised about their health implications of the positive tests.

As with all information held by the Blood Service, the information is confidential and released only to the donor and agencies as required by law such as the State Department of Health.

The purpose of tests conducted by the Blood Service is as a screen to ensure the safest possible transfusions to patients. The testing is confined only to a specific group of blood borne diseases for which there are suitable high volume tests. Donors should not rely on this testing for their own personal health screening. Also, on some occasions laboratory testing cannot be performed and in these instances, your donation will not be used.