On April 23, 1992, August 5, 1993, and August 19, 1993, FDA issued memoranda to all registered blood and plasma establishments, which provided recommendations for testing for antibody to Hepatitis C Virus Encoded Antigen (anti-HCV). This memorandum supplements those previous memoranda by transmitting additional recommendations for testing for antibody to anti-HCV in blood establishments. (See attached recommendations.)

In a public meeting of the Blood Products Advisory Committee (BPAC) on March 21, 1996, after review and discussion of the relevant information available, concern was expressed that the use of a supplemental test for anti-HCV that uses fewer antigens than the screening test for anti-HCV may cause uncertainties. In particular, the Committee discussed its concern that the use of the Chiron RIBA HCV 2.0 Immunoblot Assay (SIA) as a supplemental test for anti-HCV should not be used for donor re-entry if the Ortho™ HCV Version 3.0 ELISA Test System was used as a screening test. FDA has considered the BPAC concerns and sets forth in the attached recommendations donor re-entry and counseling procedures that should be used in this situation.

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