Mandatory Blood Screening to Prevent Transfusion-Transmission of Zika Virus Two platelet transfusion recipients acquired the Zika virus from their transfusions, as recently reported in The New England Journal of… August 29, 2016
New Drug for Leishmaniasis, Chagas Disease and Sleeping Sickness Leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and sleeping sickness are transfusion-transmitted diseases. These diseases affect more than 20 million people annually in Latin… August 18, 2016
Leukoreduction Alone May Be Sufficient to Prevent Transfusion-Transmitted Cytomegalovirus Infection in Preterm Infants Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is common and typically asymptomatic among healthy individuals, but it can be life-threatening in immunodeficient patients… August 10, 2016
FDA Recommends Screening Blood for Zika Virus in South Florida after Reports of Local Transmission Last week, the Florida Health Department reported four local mosquito-borne cases of Zika virus in South Florida. Currently, officials believe… August 1, 2016
Most Blood Donors Are Motivated by Altruism The Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study-II (REDS-II) is currently monitoring more than 50% of the U.S. blood donations. From 2010 to… July 27, 2016
Association of Increased Death in Transfusion Recipients from Young or Female Donors In an observational cohort study over seven years, 30,503 red blood cells (RBC) transfusion recipients who received close to 188,000… July 20, 2016
Transfusions and Hospital IV Injections Likely Contributed to the Spread of HIV and Other Blood-borne Viruses in Africa Although the exact source and factors leading to the HIV pandemic are unclear, it has been suggested that iatrogenic transmission,… July 13, 2016
No Evidence of Transfusion-Transmission of Neurodegenerative Disorders Misfolded proteins aggregate in the brain in many neurodegenerative disorders, and animal studies have shown that protein misfolding can be… July 6, 2016
No Increased Risk of Blood Donations from MSM after Temporary Deferrals Most industrialized countries do not allow blood donations from men who have had sex with men (MSM). Recently, however, several… June 29, 2016
CAR-T Cell Cancer Therapies Hold Promise Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy harnesses the power of the patient’s own immune system to combat cancer. In theory,… June 22, 2016
