This has been convincingly demonstrated during the last year when numerous blood services have used the blood bank infrastructure to swiftly carry out seroprevalence surveys. However, as long as this “healthy donor effect” is appreciated, donor populations may still be used to monitor infections. Blood donors are therefore healthier than the background population and not suitable for the study of all types of infections. The blood donor population in contrast, is mostly static, and we and others have re-affirmed that donors are motivated to donate because it helps patients and not because of the possibility of being tested for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.īlood donors have to fulfill strict criteria and are deferred when sick or e.g., due to sexual risk behavior. Not only do the surveys take time to plan and roll out, and are therefore expensive response rates are typically low and varying over time, and the surveys are therefore prone to participation bias. However, these surveys are notoriously challenging to carry out simply by inviting individuals randomly selected in the general population. Such results can be used to estimate both attack and fatality rates for the infectious agent. Seroprevalence surveys assess the percentage of a population who has already been infected and hopefully is immune to re-infection. While authorities worldwide, early on reported daily updated data of the number of individuals testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA true measures of incidence and prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection were difficult to establish. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has highlighted the importance of flexible systems for effective surveillance of emerging infectious diseases. Recently, screening of blood donors have helped monitor epidemics of e.g., West Nile virus, Coxiella burnetii, Zika virus, and SARS-CoV-2. Blood donor studies have continued to contribute to our understanding of the epidemiology and pathogenesis of these and other infectious diseases. More than 100 years ago, syphilis was reported to be transferable from donors to patients and transfusion has led to great advances in our understanding of several important infections such as hepatitis B, C and HIV. Pedersen 5 1Department of Clinical Immunology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark, 2Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, 3Department of Clinical Immunology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark, 4Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark, 5Department of Clinical Immunology, Zealand University Hospital, Køge, DenmarkĮarly in the history of transfusion it was recognized that transfusion-transmitted infectious diseases constituted a serious risk for the recipient. PL-01-03 Blood donor biobanks as a surveillance tool for future pandemics C. PL-01-02 SARS-CoV2 surveillance by blood banks: Variants, re-infections and vaccine-breakthrough infections E.
Plenary session - How viruses shape blood banking PL-01-01 Hepatitis C and blood banking the road to the Nobel Prize H.
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