Screening for XXXX @entity6494 among blood donors in Sweden: cost effectiveness analysis.

@entity1 @entity281 @entity6494 @entity778
OBJECTIVE: To analyse the cost effectiveness of a national programme to screen blood donors for @entity281 with the @entity1 @entity6494 . DESIGN: Three models for calculating the costs and benefits of screening were developed. The first model analysed the cost of continuously testing all donations; the second analysed the cost of initially testing new blood donors and then retesting them after five years; the third analysed the cost of testing donors only at the time of their first donation. @entity1 who had received blood components from donors confirmed to be infected with the virus were offered testing. SETTING: Sweden. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of @entity778 among blood donors, the risk of transmission of the virus, screening costs, and the outcome of @entity281 . RESULTS: 648 497 donations were tested for the virus; 1625 samples tested positive by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. 6 were confirmed positive by western blotting. The prevalence of @entity778 was 2/100 000 donors. 35 @entity1 who had received blood infected with the virus were tested; 3 were positive. The cost of testing every donation was calculated to be  3.02m (1.88m pounds); this is 18 times higher than the cost of testing new donors only, and only 1 additional positive donor would be discovered in 7 years. Regardless of the model used, screening was estimated to prevent only 1 death every 200 years at a minimum cost of  36m (22.5m pounds). CONCLUSION: Based on these estimates the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare decided that only new blood donors would be screened for @entity778 .
