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Global News

General

• AABB: Ebola Fact Sheet
• AABB: Association Bulletin on Clinical Recognition & Investigation of Suspected Bacterial Contamination of Platelets (18 July 2014)
• Allen TC. Social media: pathologists' force multiplier. Arch Pathol Lab Med 2014 Aug;138,(8):1000-1.
• Goldman M, Lapierre D, Lemay L, Devine D, Sher G. Donor criteria for men who have sex with men: a Canadian perspective. Transfusion. 2014 Jul;54(7):1887-92.
• Scientists generate human platelets using next-generation bioreactor (21 July 2014)
  • Thon JN, et al. Platelet bioreactor-on-a-chip. Blood Jul 21.
• Why do we have blood types (15 July 2014)

Canada

• About 50% of eligible northern Ontario residents register to donate organs (6 Aug. 2014)
• More on Paid Plasma 
  • Paid plasma raises ethical issues (CMAJ, 28 July 2014)
  • CBS CEO Sher discusses paid plasma on CBC's Ottawa Morning (24 July 2014)
  • Ontario right to ban paid blood donations (Hamilton Spectator, 24 July 2014)
  • Prior to banning paid donation, Ontario Health Ministry inspectors raid Toronto paid plasma clinics, seize records (22 July 2014)
• NEW BC PBCO & CBS Education Session on Blood Transfusion Issues (Oct. 2, 2014, Whistler, BC)
• 12th Annual CBS International Symposium - Plasma: Transfuse it, Fractionate it or Forget it? (13 Sept. 2014, Toronto, ON)
• Blood Regulations (published in Canada Gazette, Part II (CGII), 23 Oct. 2013 to come into force on 23 Oct. 2014)
  • CAN/CSA-Z902-10 (Blood Standard): Since relevant sections of the Blood Standard are referenced in the Blood Regulations, all blood establishments require access to the most current version of the Blood Standard (available on CSA website)

Australia

• See Industry News below

Ireland

• ISBT almost halves deficit (30 July 2014)
• Decline in use of blood and platelets had a serious impact on IBTS income (22 July 2014)
  • 2013 IBTS annual report (See Chief Executive's Report, pp.13-14)

Pakistan

• Special bodies asked to crack down on illegal blood banks (26 July 2014)

UK

• Human interest 
  • Biomedical scientists retires after 40 years in blood transfusion laboratory at Royal Cornwall Hospital (10 Aug. 2014)
  • Volunteer bikers deliver blood out-of-hours to Nottinghamshire hospitals (1 Aug. 2014)
  • Transfusion service van gets parking ticket outside donor clinic (1 Aug. 2014)
• One in 3000 blood donations contaminated with HEV (27 July 2014)
• MPs warn of govt's 'casual attitude' to risk of vCJD transmission via surgery and transfusion (23 July 2014)
  • Science and Technology Committee Report: After the storm? UK blood safety and risk of vCJD (24 July)
  • Background: vCJD and transfusion of blood components: an updated risk assessment (UK govt, 2013)

USA

• HIV positive man arrested and charged after donating plasma for $30 (8 Aug. 2014)
• Florida's One Blood and Pittsburgh's ITxM merging to cut costs (30 July 2014) | One Blood's announcement (25 July 2014)
• 5 reasons HIV on rise among young gay & bisexual men (24 July 2014) 
  • Johnson AS, Hall HI, Hu X, Lansky A, Holtgrave DR, Mermin J. Trends in diagnoses of HIV infection in the United States, 2002-2011 JAMA 2014;312(4):432-4.
• Patient dies after receiving wrong ABO group RBC (24 July 2014) | Long list of errors
• Stars and Stripes: Change in transfusion protocol cuts troop deaths (17 July 2014) | Also see Holcomb et al. under Journals below

Industry news

• Australia/NZ: CSL subsidiary bioCSL to distribute Immucor's Capture® solid phase technology in ANZ (21 July 2014)
  • CSL's announcement
• USA: FDA readies social media rules for Big Pharma (6 Aug. 2014)
• How Big Pharma gouges the USA public (5 Aug. 2014)

* Also see TraQ's Industry News

Diseases in the news

• NEW WNV - Canada: CBS, BC & Yukon WNV Update #3, 8 Aug 2014 (via BC PBCO)
• Babesiosis: AABB releases update on babesiosis, inc. transfusion-transmitted babesiosis (18 July 2014)
• Ebola virus (See General above)
• HEV: See UK above
• HCV and HIV: See Goldman et al. paper under Journals below
• HIV: See USA above
• vCJD: See UK above

Resource Library

Administering blood transfusion (2008, CETL, UK) Older but still useful, with interesting pictures

Video (Canada) : Resource for patients and physicians who wish to receive standardised and accurate information about blood transfusions

NEW TM blogs:

The way we were (Musings on TM history and its lessons for today)

Don't worry, be happy (Musings on the safety of our blood supply)

@transfusionnews (TraQ webmaster's personal Twitter account)

Older resources (BC PBCO)

Reporting Final Results of a Transfusion Reaction to External Agencies - Job Aid TR 0007JA (v 1.1, Aug. 1, 2013)

BC Serology Interest Group: Passing the Serology Torch videos (11 videos ranging from~20 to 60 mins.

BC PBCO and BC TRG: Transfusion Bits and Bytes (6 educational videos for med lab technologists)
BC PBCO mobile web apps: BMI (Body Mass Index) Calculator and IVIG Dosing Calculator | Instructions:
Android | Blackberry | iPhone For further information contact Quality and Utilization Management Program Coordinator at PBCO

*See TraQ's Resource Library | Nursing resources | Literature clearinghouses | Links | Continuing education | Jobs | Video library

Journals, etc.

• * Cheung D, Lieberman L, Lin Y, Callum J. Consent for blood transfusion: Do patients understand the risks and benefits? Transfus Med. 2014 Jul 28. [Epub ahead of print]
• * Goldman M, Lapierre D, Lemay L, Devine D, Sher G. Donor criteria for men who have sex with men: a Canadian perspective. Transfusion. 2014 Jul;54(7):1887-92.
• Holcomb JB, Donathan DP, Cotton BA, et al. Prehospital transfusion of plasma and red blood cells in trauma patients. Prehosp Emerg Care. June 16, 2014.
  • Evaluating the use of blood products for prehospital trauma patients: Blood vs. Crystalloids (5 Aug. 2014)
• Johnson AS, Hall HI, Hu X, Lansky A, Holtgrave DR, Mermin J. Trends in diagnoses of HIV infection in the United States, 2002-2011 JAMA 2014;312(4):432-4.
• Mundt JM, Rouse L, Van den Bossche J, Goodrich RP. Chemical and biological mechanisms of pathogen reduction technologies. Photochem Photobiol 2014 Jul 7. [Epub ahead of print] Authors are from Terumo BST
• * Thon JN, et al. Platelet bioreactor-on-a-chip. Blood Jul 21.
• Varela JC, Brodsky RA. Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria and the age of therapeutic complement inhibition. Expert Rev Clin Immunol. 2013 Nov;9(11):1113-24.