[MCOH-EH] Holding Blood for HIV testing for 90 days

[Amy Olson]

Happy Monday from Florida,
Our hospital is doing well in St. Petersburg. Many thanks to people who have reached out.

As I wait for the sun to rise, I'm going through some things and I have a question. As I understand the BBP standard, we are required to hold an employee's blood for 90 days so they could decide at a future date to have it tested for HIV. I have yet to run into a situation where an employee deferred testing, but now that I have direct responsibility for the Exposure Control Plan, I have more interest in ensuring what is written is something we can deliver. Our lab is continuing to research, but when I posed the question about holding blood and testing within 90 days, this is the response I got: "It's not that we can't hold a sample for 90 days. There isn't a commercial ref lab that has validated this particular testing for a sample >30 days old. That seems to be the dilemma for HIV ½ analysis."

What are other people doing? Am I misinterpreting the standard?

Thank you,
Amy Olson
Director, Employee Health and Wellness
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