Abstract
Although the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections today is lower than ever, the supply of safe blood products remains subject to contamination with known and yet to be identified human pathogens. Only continuous improvement and implementation of donor selection, sensitive screening tests and effective inactivation procedures can ensure the elimination, or at least reduction, of the risk of acquiring transfusion transmitted infections. In addition, ongoing education and up-to-date information regarding infectious agents that are potentially transmitted via blood components is necessary to promote the reporting of adverse events, an important component of transfusion transmitted disease surveillance. Thus, the collaboration of all parties involved in transfusion medicine, including national haemovigilance systems, is crucial for protecting a secure blood product supply from known and emerging blood-borne pathogens.
Highlights
There are early reports in the history of medicine that describe attempts to treat patients with human or animal blood products, transfusion medicine is a relatively young field that has developed only since the second half of the last century
Three testing systems are licensed in the U.S and are in use in many transfusion centers around the world. These screening tests appear quite effective and recent data indicate that the frequency of bacterial contamination has declined by about 50% or more with contamination being detected in about one in 5,000 apheresis platelet concentrates (PLT) concentrates tested[13]
The general public may be idealistic in their belief that risk-free blood products are achievable in today's world
Summary
There are early reports in the history of medicine that describe attempts to treat patients with human or animal blood products, transfusion medicine is a relatively young field that has developed only since the second half of the last century. Http://www.translational-medicine.com/content/5/1/25 ever, it has some limitations in blood components with very low levels of viremia, which can even escape detection by NAT [27] Despite this limitation, the combination of both serological testing and NAT has considerably reduced the risk of viral transmission by blood transfusion [28,29,30]. The risk of TT malaria differs widely between low-endemic countries, where the infection is "imported" from outside (e.g. travel to or immigration of individuals from highly endemic regions) and regions of high prevalence of plasmodium infection in the general population For the latter, only limited data are available, with one report from Benin showing one third of the screened blood donors to harbor Plasmodium falciparum trophozoites and potentially be able to transmit the pathogen by blood products[101]. Possible limitations, such as high costs, long-term side effects of some additives and inability to inactivate certain pathogens like spore-forming bacteria will need to be overcome to ensure pathogen-free blood products on a large scale and at affordable prices
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