Advances in pretransfusion infectious disease testing: ensuring the safety of transfusion therapy.
The public expects a zero-tolerance policy for the transmission of infectious agents by blood transfusion. Although unrealistic, the efforts to reach this goal have produced an extremely safe albeit costly blood supply [82]. Blood collecting agencies, the FDA, physicians, and scientists have over the past 20 years created a complex system of layers of protection to interdict transfusion-transmitted infections (Fig. 2). As new, exotic, potentially blood transmittable infectious agents evolve [83], new barriers will be erected to [figure: see text] interdict these agents. In the interim, the US blood supply is the safest in the world.
American Red Cross Citywide Program, Department of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University, Blood Bank, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH, USA.
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D001771:Blood Banks / Q000592:standards*; D001782:Blood Donors; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000592:standards; D017848:Blood-Borne Pathogens; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D021821:Communicable Diseases, Emerging / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D010338:Pathology, Clinical / Q000379:methods*; D012449:Safety; D065227:Transfusion Reaction