14th
June, WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY, a campaign marked by WHO
(World Health Organization), established in 2004 in order to raise awareness of
the need for safe blood and blood products, and to thank blood donors for their
voluntary, life-saving gifts of blood.
World
Blood Donor Day celebration brings a precious opportunity to all donors for
celebrating it on national and global level as to commemorate the birthday
anniversary of KARL LANDSTEINER (a great scientist who won the Nobel Prize for
his great discovery of the ABO blood group system).
This
year the theme of the day was “Blood connects us all”. And we should not forget that blood can also
connect to us via a disease as well.
This week itself, lots of blood
donation program has been conducted by various organizations. But very less
such organization take care about the risk of disease transmission via such
large mass blood donation program. Here we tried to elaborate some risk which
can occur via blood donation programs. Being a health professional its our duty
to present a real picture and risk of blood transfusion.
Transfusion-Transmitted Infection (TTI)
Blood transfusion has been and continues to
be a possible source of disease transmission. A myriad of agents can
potentially be transmitted through blood transfusions, including bacteria,
viruses and parasites. Of these, bacteria are the most commonly transmitted.
Some of the enlisted exogenous substances which may come during blood
transfusion and infect the healthy human:
Prions :
These can cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, are also transmissible through
transfusion; they cannot be destroyed using current techniques for inactivating
pathogens in the blood supply.
Viral:
Nowadays viral transmission is a greatest chanllenge for the health
professionals. Dieases like hepatitis C and HIV has high risk of transmission
by blood transfusion. Some other like, cytomegalovirus (CMV), Human T-cell
lymphotrophic viruses (HTLVs), West Nile Virus 9 (WNV)
Parasites:
Some parasites like malaria also transmit via blood transfusion.
Bacteria:- Some
of the bacterias like Pseudomonas, Staphylococci, Treponema Pallidum, a
spirochete bacterium(Syphilis)
Any infective agent that potentially evades the sterility of
the transfusion loop can come from the donor's blood or skin or from a
contaminated environment.
It
has been proposed that the higher incidence of bacterial transmission via
platelets is due to the difference in storage temperatures. Also
important is the duration of storage, which has a direct correlation with the
likelihood of bacterial contamination.
An
important concept in the evaluation of data regarding transfusion-transmitted
bacterial infections (TTBIs) is the definition of a case.
Such infected blood transfusion can cause
mild to serious damage till death. So to prevent such ille effect any
organization can take various measures which are enlisted below:
*Donor
selection
*Processing,
Quality control
*Screening
Tests
*Storage
, Pathogen inactivation
*Better
blood transfusion
*Tracing
surveillance
We recommend any organization to follow
following measures or visit red cross for the proper guidance and training.
·
Assure the donor safe from any diseases by
taking his/her history.
·
Repeat the type and cross-match, and also
collect blood for a Coombs test and bacterial culture from the recipient
·
In order to prevent an infective incident,
strict sterile precautions and donor screening are required
·
Donors who are febrile and likely infected
should be deferred
·
The initial aliquot of donor blood should be
discarded to prevent contamination with the skin flora.
·
Identify bacterial contamination by
laboratory methods
·
Bactericidally treat the donated blood
Despite
the potential for disease transmission through transfused blood, the safety of
the blood supply should be continued to improve blood donation and transfusion.
-
Ms. Sandhaya D.
Tags:
Health