Question

What is the window phase of an infection? How is this concept important for testing for HIV infection in blood banks?

Answer 1

ANSWER:

The primary immunologic response of the body facing any infection isn't immediate. The window part is that theamount from the infection till the formation of detectable specific antibodies against the infective agent. throughoutthis era, chemistry tests that obliquely hunt for infections, like the enzyme-linked-immunosorbent serologic assayand therefore the Western-blot for HIV, provides a negative result although the person is really infected by the agent. within the case of HIV, the window part will last concerning two weeks to three months.

The window part may be a massive downside for blood banks that solely perform chemistry tests on the given blood. this can be the rationale why, in some countries, blood donors ar submitted to a series of queries concerning their previous behavior, principally sexual and drug use connected, within the months preceding the donation and additionally to voluntary confidential self-exclusion, within which they declare whether or not their blood is also used or ought to be excluded. rather than facing this dangerous downside, trendy blood banks use PCR (polymerase chain reaction) for HIV, a check that's not distorted by the window part since it's not antibody-based. victimisation specific primers, PCR detects the presence of deoxyribonucleic acid generated by the reverse transcription of HIV RNA.