Hematology and Cell Therapy

Transfusion Transmissible Infections

Regardless of advancement in screening technologies while blood transfusion, there is still a risk of transfusion-transmitted infectious diseases. These infectious diseases can be reduced by donor exclusion, screening for serological infection markers or nucleic acid testing (NAT) by viral gene amplification. Nevertheless, blood-borne infection is transferred through transfusion of infected blood donated by apparently healthy and asymptomatic blood donors. Infectious agents involved are of various types which include-

• Hepatitis B (HBV)
• Hepatitis C (HCV)
• Human immunodeficiency (HIV-1/2)
• Human T-cell lymphotropic (HTLV-I/II)
• Cytomegalovirus (CMV)
• West Nile (WNV)
• Trypanosomiasis
• Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE)
• Malaria and Dengue Viruses