ad
This Article
Right arrow Full Version
Services
Right arrow E-mail this link to a friend
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Right arrow Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Appendices
Right arrow Earn CME - What's This?
Related Collections
Right arrowRelated Articles

The first 300 words of the full text of this section appear below.

Section 2. Recommendations for Care of Children in Special Circumstances

Blood Safety: Reducing the Risk of Transfusion-Transmitted Infections

Transfusion-Transmitted Agents: Known Threats and Potential Pathogens

Any infectious agent that has an infectious blood phase potentially can be transmitted by blood transfusion. Factors that influence the risk of transmission by transfusion of an infectious agent and development of clinical disease in the recipient include prevalence and incidence of the agent in donors, duration of hematogenous phase, tolerance of the agent to processing and storage, infectivity and pathogenicity of the agent, and recipient’s health status. Table 2.3 (p 110) lists major known transfusion-transmitted infections and some of the emerging agents under investigation.

Viruses
Bacteria
Parasites
Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Prion Disease

Top
 Next

VIRUSES

HIV (p 380), HCV (p 357), HBV (p 337) The probability of infection in recipients who are exposed to HIV, HCV, or HBV in transfused blood products is approximately 90%. Although blood donations are screened for these viruses, there is a small residual risk of infection resulting almost exclusively from donations collected during the "window period" of infection—the period soon after infection during which a blood donor is infectious but screening results are negative.

To decrease the time period when donor HIV and HCV infection may be undetected, routine nucleic acid amplification (NAA) testing of blood and plasma donations was implemented beginning in 1999 in the United States and is performed on blood and plasma donations. At present, NAA testing for HBV is an optional donor screening test. Various estimates suggest that NAA testing on pooled units can decrease the preantibody seroconversion "window period" from 22 days to 13 to 15 days for HIV and from 70 days to 10 to 29 days for HCV. Mathematical models have been developed to estimate the current very low risks of transfusion . . . [Go to Full Text]


Related Articles

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies
Red Book 2009 2009: 547a-550a. [Extract] [Full Text]

Babesiosis
Red Book 2009 2009: 226-227. [Extract] [Full Text]

American Trypanosomiasis (Chagas Disease)
Red Book 2009 2009: 678-679. [Extract] [Full Text]

Cytomegalovirus Infection
Red Book 2009 2009: 275-280. [Extract] [Full Text]

Hepatitis A
Red Book 2009 2009: 329-337. [Extract] [Full Text]

Hepatitis B
Red Book 2009 2009: 337-356. [Extract] [Full Text]

Hepatitis C
Red Book 2009 2009: 357-360. [Extract] [Full Text]

Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection
Red Book 2009 2009: 380a-400a. [Extract] [Full Text]

Malaria
Red Book 2009 2009: 438-444. [Extract] [Full Text]

Parvovirus B19 (Erythema Infectiosum, Fifth Disease)
Red Book 2009 2009: 491-493. [Extract] [Full Text]