The BC Transplant Society(BCTS) in collaboration with the BC Center for Disease Control (BCCDC), both agencies of the Provincial Health Services Authority, have developed a two-step screening process to test organ donors for West Nile Virus(WNV) as part of their comprehensive screening process to ensure a safe supply of organs for recipients. This screening is the first of its kind in Canada.

The first step is an enhancement of the existing comprehensive screening already in place. The BCTS has expanded its donor medical and social history questionnaire to capture relevant information related to travel and medical symptoms linked to WNV.

Travel history, linking potential donors to endemic regions during peak periods(summer months), will now be investigated to rule out any possibility of WNV prior to initation of the organ recovery process. In addition, questions will also be asked that that help identify the symptoms of WNV.

In the second step, BCTS and the BCCDC have been working cooaboratively to ensure new medical laboratory tests are in place to screen all BC organ donors for WNV. Two tests will be used, one to detect antigen (a specific fragment of Nucleic Acid of the virus) and the other to detect whether antibodies have been produced against the virus, thus identifying an earlier WNV infection. These tests can be completed in a timely fashion ensuring there is no delay in donor organ recovery and subsequent recipient surgeries.

This ongoing commitment to new test development and time sensitive screening is imperative to the safety and ongoing success of the organ transplant program in BC.

WNV is transmitted to humans through bites by infected mosquitos that can become carriers through biting infected birds. The virus is not spread by direct person to person contact, or from animal to human. Eighty per cent(80%) of people bitten by an infected mosquito will never become ill or show any symptoms of infection. Twenty per cent(20%) of people infected develope mild flu-like symptoms lasting less than one week. Fewer than one per cent develope serious health problems such as encephalitis or meningitis (inflammation of the brain or its lining).

The new screening process for organ donors has been developed to ensure that those people who may have had WNV, but never developed symptoms or had flu like symptoms that may have gone undetected are caught. In the case of the one per cent of people who develope serious problems, these symptoms would already preclude them from ever becoming an organ donor.