Probability of receiving testing in a national lookback program: the English HCV experience.

BACKGROUND

The HCV lookback program was designed to trace and offer testing to recipients who received transfusion of blood components from donors subsequently found to be anti-HCV positive. Only approximately 20 percent of transfusable components entering lookback did result in a recipient obtaining testing through this program.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS

Data from English blood centers were collated to describe the outcomes of the HCV lookback program. The data were used to assess factors affecting the likelihood that recipients of lookback components received testing by the program.

RESULTS

In total, 4424 recipients of 6687 blood components that had been issued for transfusion were identified. The lookback resulted in a tested recipient for 1067 components. Factors positively associated with receiving testing in identified recipients were younger age at transfusion, more recent year of transfusion, certain component types, and transfusion under the care of certain medical specialties; these effects were largely explained by the association of these factors with survival after transfusion.

CONCLUSIONS

Not accepting testing through this program was largely due to death before the lookback and partly due to inability to access information from records and to decisions that testing was not in recipients' best interests. The probability of obtaining testing through this lookback was associated with several factors that could be used to focus the efforts of similar lookbacks in the future.