Canadian blood suppliers: An expanding role in public health surveillance?
Can Commun Dis Rep
; 48(4): 124-130, 2022 Apr 06.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1818785
ABSTRACT
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic galvanized blood donor seroprevalence studies, which continue to inform public health policy. We propose that the two Canadian blood suppliers, Héma-Québec and Canadian Blood Services, expand their role in public health surveillance in the post-pandemic period. Together blood suppliers have near-national reach, collecting blood donations nearly every day in all larger cities and many smaller municipalities. Blood donors are a healthy subset of the general population. Demographic data, routine infectious disease testing and screening questionnaire data are collected for all donations. Close to one million blood samples per year could be made available for surveillance. With 90% repeat donors, longitudinal sampling is possible. Current blood donor surveillance includes monitoring infectious marker rates in low risk (e.g. HIV, hepatitis C virus) or asymptomatic (e.g. West Nile virus) populations, and ad hoc studies to monitor transfusion-transmissible infections. These include tick-borne infections such as Babesia microti and foodborne infections such as hepatitis E. Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec are actively seeking to engage with public health professionals to further develop a role in public health surveillance.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
Can Commun Dis Rep
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
/
Epidemiology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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