When checking a donor for transmissible diseases, what is the difference between screening and testing?
A. There is a lot of difference. Screening is looking for evidence that indicates or suggests something specific, like a particular disease. Testing is a procedure that is specific for the particular disease. A good example would be evaluating a person for the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea. The person could be asked screening questions suggestive of the disease, questions such as having fever, unprotected sex, painful urination, or a genital discharge. The answers may suggest whether the person has a STI or even an infection by gonorrhea, but these are not tests because the answers that would suggest gonorrhea might also suggest another kind of infection. A physical exam of the body is another screening procedure. There are two specific tests for gonorrhea: seeing gonorrhea bacteria with a microscope in material taken from the genitals of the person or finding gonorrhea DNA in that material. This is really a technical issue that you might want to discuss with your health car
