Emerging viruses in blood transfusion.
OBJECTIVE
The development of new technologies leads to the discovery of new viruses. For each of these new infectious agents relevance to transfusion needs to be assessed.


METHODS
The questions to be answered are transmissibility by transfusion, pathogenicity, prevalence in blood donors, persistence and the availability of screening assays.


RESULTS
Since 1995, four new viruses have been identified and for three of them extensive studies have been carried out. GBV-C/HGV and TTV were both initially thought to be related to post-transfusion hepatitis but neither were proven to be in any way related to hepatitis and are still in search of a disease. HHV-8 is a major factor in the pathogenesis of Kaposi's sarcoma and other tumours related to immunodeficiency. HHV-8 transmission by organ transplantation but not by transfusion has been demonstrated. SEN-V has been claimed as a potential cause of non-A-E hepatitis but no data has been published.


CONCLUSIONS
To date, none of the emerging viruses have been proven relevant to transfusion.
Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, UK. jpa1000@cam.ac.uk
J P
JP
Allain
D001782:Blood Donors; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D065227:Transfusion Reaction; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology; D014780:Viruses / Q000145:classification*