Aims

• Evidence-based bloodborne infectious disease screening of blood donors
• Contribute to the national epidemiology of bloodborne disease 

Key Findings

• Evidence is provided for recommending a selective HTLV donor screening algorithm in Ireland that is accompanied by a robust framework for continued surveillance of leucodepletion failure rate.
  • Human T-lymphotropic virus in Irish blood donors: Impact on future testing strategy. Pádraig Williams, Niamh O'Flaherty, Stephen Field, Allison Waters. Transfusion. 2022 Jul 13. 

• Irish results indicate that 59% of donors with a Hepatitis E viral load of less than 450 IU/mL may have screened negative in a mini-pools of 24
  • Blood Donor Screening for Hepatitis E Virus in the European Union Fiona Boland, Auxiliadora Martinez, Louise Pomeroy, Niamh O'Flaherty

• Syphilis infection remains undiagnosed, especially among heterosexual men, and that infectious syphilis is often missed as a differential diagnosis even when donors have presented with genital or oral ulceration, rashes in the genital area and lymphadenopathy. 
  • Lessons learnt from syphilis-infected blood donors: a timely reminder of missed opportunities. Heli Harvala, Claire Reynolds, Alvin Fabiana, Joanne Tossell, Gillian Bulloch, Susan Brailsford, Stuart Blackmore, Louise Pomeroy

• The immunocompromised recipient of the implicated red cell component was tested 110 days post-transfusion, revealing a Hepatitis B DNA viral load of 470 IU/ml. Genotype C2 sequences identical across two regions of the HBV genome were found in samples from the donor and recipient.
  • Transfusion-transmitted hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection from an individual-donation nucleic acid (ID-NAT) non-reactive donor. Niamh O'Flaherty, I Ushiro-Lumb, Louise Pomeroy, S Ijaz, Fiona Boland, Cillian De Gascun, Joan Fitzgerald, Joan O'Riordan

• Both the seroconversion and analytical sensitivities are comparable between the Alinity s CMV IgG assay, the CMV Mastazyme Total AB assay, the Architect CMV IgG assay and the Vidas IgG assay. We did not identify any donors with isolated confirmed CMV IgM antibodies in a pool of 6127 donors. and conclude the Abbott Alinity s CMV IgG assay is a suitable replacement to the Mastazyme total AB assay for blood donor screening.
  • Evaluating an Automated CMV Sceening Assay at the IBTS | A Challenging Process for Blood Screening Laboratories. D. Coyne, D. Butler, P. Williams, N. O'Flaherty

On-going Research 

• Performance evaluation of commercial assays to effectively screen Irish blood donors for bloodborne infections
• Molecular epidemiology of bloodborne viruses circulating in Irish blood donors
• Infectious disease screening considerations for an Individual Donor Risk Assessment policy