The value of lookback to understanding blood-borne infectious diseases: the New South Wales' HIV experience.

ABSTRACT

This article describes the methods used by the New South Wales Division of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (ARCBS-NSW) to conduct human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) lookback, assesses the success and limitations of the different methods used, and discusses the results obtained. This article shows that an important outcome of the HIV lookback undertaken by the ARCBS-NSW was the establishment and maintenance of an observational database. This database became an integral part of several research projects that contributed significantly to understanding factors influencing the rate of progression of HIV to acquired immunodeficiency virus and knowledge of HIV pathogenesis in general. This article argues that if lookback is extended beyond its original function of identifying transfusion-infected recipients and the implicated donors to create and maintain a linked register of these recipients and donors, the information obtained in such an observational database can be used to describe the natural history of transfusion-transmitted infectious diseases and can contribute to the research necessary to the understanding of disease pathogenesis.