G. Gessoni¹, P. Barin¹, M. Fezzi¹, F. Abud-Mussad¹, N. Arreghini¹, G. De Fusco¹, S. Panese², P. Rocchetto², A. Barelli², A. Borri², G. Marchiori<sup>1

1</sup> Transfusional Service, 2 Infectious Diseases Unit, ASL 12 Veneziana.
Umberto I Civil Hospital, Mestre (VE)

The International and the Italian regulations introduced the nucleic acid testing (NAT) as a screening of each plasma-pool processed for the production of stable plasma-derived products [1, 2]. In Germany, the regulation agency for blood components announced its intention to introduce the NAT-based screening of each blood donation [3]. There are no univocal opinions regarding the feasibility and the suitability of the introduction of NAT-based screening in blood transfusion because of the minimal residual risk for post-transfusion hepatitis, the high cost and the unsatisfactory standardization of the NAT technology [4, 5]. Thereafter many European Transfusional Services started screening studies for HCV-RNA by using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test applied to mini-pools of blood donations [6, 7].