Blood products and parvovirus B19

A Committee of the Health Council of The Netherlands has expressed its opinion on introducing testing of blood products for parvovirus B19 (B19). Although infections with B19 generally run their course without any serious health problems, for some groups, such as pregnant women, patients with underlying haematological problems and patients with immunodeficiency, infections with B19 can result in serious complications. For cellular blood products, which are derived either from a single donor or a limited number of donors and are administered either to a single patient or to a limited number of patients, the Committee recommends that a risk-group approach be adopted and that 'Big-virus safe' blood products be administered to the risk groups mentioned above. The Committee defines as 'Big-virus safe' cellular blood products from a donor in which IgG antibodies against B19 have been detected in two separate blood samples, one taken at least six months after the other. Patients other than those in the risk groups should continue to receive cellular blood products that have been produced in accordance with current safety criteria. For plasma products, which are prepared from plasma pools and are administered to large numbers of patients, the measures must be aimed at cutting down the levels of B19 infectivity in such pools. For plasma pools, the Committee proposes a maximum permissible limit of 104 genome copies of Bl9 per ml.