Transfusion transmitted infections: a concern of safe transfusion

Abstract

Blood transfusion practices are widely utilized across the country in Indian scenario in view of widespread prevalence of anemia and growing domain of healthcare to larger segment of society. Safe transfusion practice is one of the main concern of healthcare agencies and World Health Organization (WHO) has identified blood safety as one of seven priority areas. Blood transfusion remain backbone of heath care involving medical conditions, major surgeries, obstetrics, dialysis units, palliative care and much more. Although used widely and hence transfusion related adverse effects are diverse and common. Transfusion related hazards do occur despite of multiple test, inspection and checks. Many of the hazards take their origin from human error i.e. wrong labeling, patient misidentification and other clerical errors. Transfusion related adverse effect may be classified mainly into three categories; immune mediated reaction, non immune mediated reaction and infectious complications [1]. Among these categories the infectious complication are less frequent than the other complication but they may vary according to prevalence and incidence of infections in particular part of the world. The data from review of the literature show that the infectious complication rate has dramatically reduced in developed countries due to improved screening and rigorous testing for possible transmissible infectious complications [1]. Same trend follows in developing countries like India but the risk still remains high due to high prevalence of infectious diseases and lack of organized health care system.