Blood Bank Guy Essentials Podcast 087CE: Transfusion-transmitted Infections with Suchi Pandey
Dec 16, 2020
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
HIV Crisis Reshaped Blood Safety
- The HIV epidemic in the 1980s tragically drove major changes in transfusion safety and testing.
- The first licensed anti-HIV test in 1985 sharply reduced transfusion-transmitted AIDS cases.
Combine Deferral And Testing For HIV
- Use donor questionnaires plus NAT and antibody testing for HIV to minimize risk.
- Apply deferrals aligned to window periods; FDA moved behavioral deferral from one year to three months.
HTLV Screening Despite Low Risk
- HTLV types 1 and 2 are rare transfusion risks but still screened by antibody testing.
- HTLV window period is long (~51 days) but residual transfusion risk is extremely low (~1 in 3 million).