We thank Sakarya and associates regarding their question about screening of amniotic membrane donors. Indeed, it is a very important issue that should not be neglected, both ethically and from a medicolegal standpoint.

Before harvesting amniotic membrane, informed consent should be taken from the donor, and donor anonymity must be maintained.

In our practice, donors are screened for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 and 2, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and syphilis, as recommended by various authors. Since certain pathogens are more frequently encountered in different geographic areas, screening for such agents may also be added to the standard protocol. The serological test records should be maintained for 11 years post transplantation. Review of the records may become necessary if HIV or any slow virus infections develop in the recipient(s), assuming that these would develop in not later than 10 years. Nevertheless, readers of the manuscript are strongly recommended to follow the current literature for donor screening, because of the changes in screening methods and their sensitivity/specificity.