Prevalence of Occult Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Blood Donors with Negative ID-NAT in Switzerland.

Introduction: Screening of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and individual-donation nucleic acid amplification testing (ID-NAT) of blood donors have become standard to detect hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. However, there is still a residual risk of HBV transmission by blood components of donors suffering from occult HBV infection (OBI). Therefore, many countries implemented universal testing of anti-HBV core antigen (anti-HBc) antibodies in order to increase blood safety.

Effects of enhanced metal recovery on the recycling potential of MSWI bottom ash fractions in various legal frameworks.

In recent years, complex new bottom ash treatment processes for enhanced metal recovery have been implemented in Switzerland, producing residual bottom ash fractions with various qualities. This study focusses on three different treatment processes by characterizing all arising fractions in detail. Thereby the factors influencing the composition of these fractions are identified and their recycling potential in Switzerland is investigated.

Dataset on ten-years monitoring of MSWI bottom ashes in six MSWI plants in the Canton of Zürich, Switzerland.

The dataset presented in this article is the supplementary data for the research article "Ten-years monitoring of MSWI bottom ashes with focus on TOC development and leaching behaviour" (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.

Ten-years monitoring of MSWI bottom ashes with focus on TOC development and leaching behaviour.

In Switzerland MSWI bottom ash has to comply with the legal threshold value for TOC of < 2 wt-% in order to be landfilled. However, TOC contents of this magnitude lead to elevated DOC emissions and associated emissions of ammonium and Cu (aq). Since 2008 the Canton of Zürich therefore pursues a strategy to lower TOC contents in bottom ash by 2020 to 0.

Sensitivity of HCV RNA and HIV RNA blood screening assays.

Background: The FDA requirement for sensitivity of viral NAT methods used in blood screening is a 95-percent detection limit of 100 copies per mL, whereas the NAT screening system should have a sensitivity of at least 5000 copies per mL per individual donation. According to the Common Technical Specifications of the European Directive 98/79/EC for in vitro diagnostics, viral standard dilutions (calibrated against the WHO standard) should be tested at least 24 times for a statistically valid assessment of the 95-percent detection limit.

Study Design And Methods: Viral standard dilution panels (PeliCheck, VQC-CLB) were prepared for HCV RNA genotypes 1 and 3 and for HIV RNA genotypes B and E.