Risks associated with red blood cell transfusions: potential benefits from application of pathogen inactivation

Kleinman, Steve; Stassinopoulos, Adonis

A fully PI-treated blood supply would shape the response to threats from new EIAs, in that there would be less pressure to develop screening assays. 142 For years, this has been the case for fractionated plasma derivatives that routinely undergo PI. For example, recipients of these products were protected from WNV transmission at a time when transmission to recipients of blood components occurred. 146 Also, as has been seen with regard to agents posing a transfusion transmission risk that does not reach a crisis level and do not have compelling business cases due to factors such as geographic or seasonal variations in incidence/prevalence (e.g., Babesia and dengue), new blood donor screening assay development cannot be relied upon to protect the blood supply. 30 The approach of PI-treated components may ultimately be less complex and less expensive than continued assay development.