Posted on 02/24/2005 8:17:29 PM PST by neverdem
ATLANTA, Feb. 24 (Reuters) - Americans who receive blood platelet transfusions are probably at a higher risk of contracting potentially deadly bacterial infections than previously believed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report published Thursday.
Doctors are often unaware of the threat, the agency reported, citing a survey of infectious-disease experts last year and a subsequent investigation into two transfusion-related deaths.
Platelets are irregularly shaped, colorless bodies that are important for clotting. Unlike other blood products, they must be stored at room temperature, making them vulnerable hosts to bacteria found on human skin and in blood.
Although the nation's blood banks took steps last year to improve their ability to detect and limit contamination of donated platelets, federal officials said the problem continued.
"Now that there is an intervention and screening going on, the rate is probably much less than it was before, but we still think it is significantly underreported," said Dr. Matthew Kuehnert, assistant director for blood safety at the National Center for Infectious Diseases.
Contaminated platelets are estimated to cause life-threatening infections in one in every 100,000 transfusion recipients.
Two deaths occurred in Ohio and Utah late last year. The first was a 74-year-old leukemia patient who developed hypotension after receiving a transfusion, and the second was a 79-year-old man recovering from coronary artery bypass surgery.
Testing of donated platelets varies by site and does not always include cultures, which are effective but costly and time-consuming.
Dipsticks and other nonculture tests are fast and cheap, but often unreliable.
Only 36 percent of infectious-disease consultants in the United States were aware that platelet contamination was one of the most common risks of infection in transfusion therapy, according to a 2004 survey by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
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