Transfusion
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United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a heterogeneous population consisting of more than 160 nationalities and 85% of the population being non-UAE. In 2007, Dubai Blood Donation Centre (DBDC), the major local supplier of blood in the UAE, introduced six-minipool nucleic acid test (NAT) for hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which in 2008 upgraded to individual-donation (ID)-NAT. The aim of this study was to analyze the efficacy of the donor screening program in the UAE and evaluate the impact of NAT on the yield and residual risk of transfusion-transmissible viral infections (TTVIs). ⋯ Incidence rates and estimated residual risk indicate that the current risk of TTVIs attributable to blood donation is relatively low in the UAE. The study recommends the parallel use of both serology and ID-NAT TTVIs screening in blood donations and suggests the exclusion of antibody to hepatitis B core antigen-positive donations as this can eliminate the potential infectivity of these units with marginal effects on the blood stock in UAE.