GLOSSARY - Testing Portal

Abbreviations and acronyms

ACCESS Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of sexually
transmitted infections and bloodborne viruses

ARTG Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods

ASHM Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine

BBVSS Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmissible Infections Standing Committee of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC)

CDNA Communicable Diseases Network of Australia

CE Conformité Européene

DAA Direct acting antiviral

EDTA Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid

EPP Exposure Prone Procedure

EQAS External Quality Assessment Scheme

FDA Food and Drug Administration (US)

HCV Hepatitis C virus

HIV Human immunodeficiency virus

IDU Injecting Drug Use

IVD In-Vitro Diagnostic Device

MBS Medicare Benefits Schedule

NATA National Association of Testing Authorities

NHMRC National Health and Medical Research Council

NPAAC National Pathology Accreditation Advisory Council

NRL National Serology Reference Laboratory, Australia

NSP Needle and Syringe Program

PCR Polymerase chain reaction

PoC Point-of-care

PWID People who inject drugs

RNA Ribonucleic acid

STI Sexually transmissible infection

SVR Sustained virological response

TGA Therapeutic Goods Administration

Anti-HCV antibody

Antibody to HCV, which can be detected in the blood usually within two or three months of HCV infection or exposure. The terms HCV antibody and anti-HCV antibody are equivalent, but in these guidelines, HCV antibody is used throughout

CE marking

Conformité Européene : subject to one or more European product safety Directives. It indicates a product’s compliance with the applicable EU regulations and enables the commercialisation of a product in 32 European countries

Compulsory testing

Where a person has no choice in being tested, e.g. as directed under a Public Health Order

Exposure Prone Procedure

Defined by the Infection Control Guidelines26 as a subset of ‘invasive procedures’ characterised by the potential for direct contact between the skin (usually finger or thumb) of the healthcare worker and sharp surgical instruments, needles or sharp tissues (spicules of bone or teeth) in body cavities or in poorly visualised or confined body sites (including the mouth). In the broader sense, an exposure-prone procedure is considered to be any situation where there is a potentially high risk of transmission of blood-borne disease from healthcare worker to patient during medical or dental procedures

Mandatory testing

Refers to situations where people may neither participate in certain activities nor access certain services unless they agree to be tested. Examples of circumstances in which mandatory testing is appropriate include before blood, tissue and organ donation, and for immigration purposes

Occupational exposure

An exposure that may place an employee at risk of HIV or HCV infection through percutaneous injury (e.g. a needlestick or cut with a sharp object, contact of mucous membranes, or contact of skin with blood, tissues or other potentially infectious body fluids to which Universal Precautions apply)

Serology

Is testing for the presence, evidence of, or quantity of antibodies specific for infectious or other agents, biochemistry, or substances in blood (serum or plasma or whole blood)

Specificity

The probability that a person without the disease will have a negative test result

Sustained virological response (SVR12)

Undetectable viral load 12 weeks after completion of antiviral therapy for HCV