Emerging viruses in blood transfusion
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Published on: June 30, 2018
1Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, UK. jpa1000@cam.ac.uk
Background And Objectives:
The development of new technologies leads to the discovery of new viruses. For each of these new infectious agents relevance to transfusion needs to be assessed.
Materials And Methods:
The questions to be answered are transmissibility by transfusion, pathogenicity, prevalence in blood donors, persistence and the availability of screening assays.
Results:
Since 1995, four new viruses have been identified and for three of them extensive studies have been carried out. GBV-C/HGV and TTV were both initially thought to be related to post-transfusion hepatitis but neither were proven to be in any way related to hepatitis and are still in search of a disease. HHV-8 is a major factor in the pathogenesis of Kaposi's sarcoma and other tumours related to immunodeficiency. HHV-8 transmission by organ transplantation but not by transfusion has been demonstrated. SEN-V has been claimed as a potential cause of non-A-E hepatitis but no data has been published.
Conclusion:
To date, none of the emerging viruses have been proven relevant to transfusion.
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