Children <12 Need Not Repeat HIV, Hep B/C Tests Before Transplant Surgery

FRIDAY, July 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Children aged <12 years who received postnatal infectious disease testing are exempt from repeat HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing prior to transplant surgery, according to research published in the July 1 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Noting that the U.S. Public Health Service guidance recommends that all transplant candidates should receive HIV, HBV, and HCV testing during hospital admission for transplant surgery, Rebecca J. Free, M.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues reviewed surveillance data from the CDC on estimates of HIV, HBV, and HCV infection rates in the United States.

The researchers found that infants and children aged <13 years have the lowest risk for new HIV infections in the United States, and 524 incident HIV infections were diagnosed in this age group during 2015 to 2019. Persons aged 13 to 19 years are at higher risk for new HIV infection; of the 36,801 new infections reported during 2019, 5 percent were among persons aged 13 to 19 years. During 2019, the incidence of acute HBV and HCV infection reported to the CDC among individuals aged <20 years was 0 and 0.1 per 100,000 population, respectively. Based on these findings, the 2020 guideline has been amended to recommend that candidates aged <12 years at the time of transplantation are exempt from pretransplant HIV, HBV, and HCV testing, if they received postnatal infectious disease testing.

"This revised guideline is intended to limit the potential risk for unnecessary blood volume loss associated with infectious disease testing," the authors write.

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