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Global News

General

• ISBT World Congress (June 2-6, Toronto Canada)
• Canada - CSTM blog: I will remember you - Ana Lima (29 Apr. 2018)
• Ngo A, Gandhi P, Miller WG. Frequency that laboratory tests influence medical decisions. 2017 Jan;1(4):410-14.
• Lance Armstrong settles $100M lawsuit with US.government sponsor (Postal Service) for $5M over blood doping (19 Apr. 2018)
• Gene therapy helps beta-thalassemia patients avoid blood transfusion (18 Apr. 2018)
  • Thompson AA, et al. Gene therapy in patients with transfusion-fependent ß-thalassemia. N Engl J Med 2018; 378:1479-93.
• Malaria parasites present in 23% of donor blood in some African countries, study suggests (16 Apr. 2018) | Related abstracts (Dakar II, Two Decades of Progress, Challenges and Perspectives in Ending Malaria, Apr. 15-20, Dakar, Senegal)
  • Fiamanya S. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the risk of transfusion transmitted malaria from blood donors in sub-Saharan Africa
  • Schindler T. Prevalence of malaria parasites at the Malabo Blood Bank on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea
• How social media helps scientists get the message across (12 Apr. 2018)
  • Lamb CT, Gilbert SL, Ford AT. Tweet success? Scientific communication correlates with increased citations in Ecology and Conservation PeerJ (12 Apr. 2018) | About PeerJ

Canada

• ISBT World Congress (June 2-6, Toronto Canada)
• BC legislation will prohibit payment for blood and plasma collection (26 Apr. 2018) | BC joins Alberta, Ontario, Quebec (~86% of Canada's population)
• N.S. Nurses Union president wants to see better protection for nurses and all health-care workers (25 Apr. 2018)
• ORBCoN Report Newsletter, April 2018
• The technical aspects of testing in Canada (Presentation by Nancy Argus at CBS 13th Annual International Symposium, 2015-09-26) | Old but interesting
• National advocacy group appeals to NS to ban private, for-profit plasma companies from province (10 Apr. 2018)
• Liberals face backlash over ban on blood donations by sexually active gay men (10 Apr. 2018)
• Community donations help pay for equipment in Owen Sound hospital, including a transfusion medicine fridge (2 Apr. 2018) | Government funds only ~10% of annual hospital costs to buy new equipment every year
• Also see CSTM blog under General above
• CBS/ORBCoN Annual Transfusion Medicine Education Videoconference Symposium: Pumping Iron: Strategies to manage iron deficient patients (11 April 2018)
• CBS: More upcoming educational events

Australia

• HTLV-1 is endemic across central Australia. Testing takes six months and is not freely available (24 Apr. 2018)

China

• Foreigner receives Chinese stem cells in transplant first (26 Apr. 2018)

India

• Blood simple: It boils down to window period (30 Apr. 2018) | The state of blood donor screening in India, population 1.324 billion
  • Background: NACO will supply fourth generation Elisa kits, not NAT (1 May 2018)
• Mystery cases of children testing HIV+ in Tamil Nadu rise (23 Apr. 2018) | Child abuse and transfusion among suspected causes
• Civil Hospital staff complain of overburden (24 Apr. 2018) | Shortages range from health professionals to custodial staff
• No negligence but lack of consent: Hospital told to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation (15 Apr. 2018) | Rs 5 lakh=~$7,661 USD
• High Court orders cancer centre to preserve blood samples and fluids from 9-year-old girl reportedly infected with HIV from transfusion (12 Apr. 2018) Background:
  • Spreading canards about girl: High Court warns of action (17 Dec. 2017)
  • Girl found HIV positive after transfusion: Government orders probe (15 Sept. 2017)

Russia

• Nearly 1.3M donors gave blood in 2017, says Health Ministry (Tass News Agency, 20 Apr. 2018) | Note: Russia's population is ~143.9M

Spain

• Blood donor incentive: A pillow for a pint (16 Apr. 2018)

UK

• Blog series from nursing team at NHS Blood and Transplant (Nursing Times, 25 Apr. 2018) | See end of article for others in the series
• West Suffolk Hospital takes ‘immediate action’ to improve blood transfusion services (6 Apr. 2018)
• Dr. Hadiza Bawa-Garba wins right to appeal being struck off (1 Apr. 2018) | Related:
  • Bawa-Garba granted Court of Appeal challenge against erasure ruling BMJ 2018; 360 (EPub 29 Mar. 2018)
• Severn Freewheelers motorcycle Blood Bike volunteers save lives (2 Apr. 2018)

USA

• Springfield hospital admits transfusion patient received wrong blood type (26 Apr. 2018)
• Desert Regional Medical Center penalized $250,000 each for two 2015 deaths (19 Apr. 2019)
• AABB Regulatory Updates: Warnings regarding synthetic marijuana use by plasma and blood donors
  • Three dead in the US after spread of synthetic cannabis laced with rat poison (14 Apr. 2018)
  • 89 cases of vitamin K dependent bleeding associated with synthetic marijuana use and some deaths. Synthetic pot can be laced with “rat poison.” Most at risk are paid plasma donors
  • CDC: About synthetic cannabinoids
• Court of Appeal reverses judgment in favor of woman whose husband diagnosed with ITP died from acute cerebral hemorrhage (10 April 2018)

Industry news

• USA: Theranos lays off most of its remaining employees to delay bankruptcy (10 Apr. 2018)

Diseases in the news

• HEV: Immunocompromised patients get hepatitis E through transfusions (13 Apr. 2018) | Abstract of small study presented at annual meeting of European Association for the Study of the Liver, Apr. 11-15, 2018
• HIV: See India above
• HTLV-1: See Australia above
• Malaria: See General above

Resource Library / Links

• BC PBCO update to Technical Operations Manual (TOM)
  • TMP0002: Blood Product Inventory Assessment, Order and Receipt
  • AOR 0004: Receiving Blood Products from CBS (v 2.0)
  • AOR 0014: Receiving and Issuing Untested or Incompletely Tested Blood Components from Canadian Blood Services (v 1.0)
  • TMP0014: Pretransfusion Examination
  • PTE 0017: Managing Transfusion Requests of Patients on Daratumumab Therapy (v 1.0)
• Canada (ORBCoN)
  • Bloody Easy 4 (Guide to Transfusion Medicine, ed. 4)
  • Bloody Easy Blood Administration, v. 2
  • ORBCoN Report Newsletter, April 2018
  • ORBCon 2018 webcast schedule
• Canada: CBS-sponsored LearnTransfusion series
• Canada - CSTM blog: I will remember you - Ana Lima (29 Apr. 2018)
• Feb. TM blog: Musings on bullying in health care

Journals, etc.

Free full text papers | * 1 or more Canadian authors

• Bahar B, Tormey CA. Prevention of transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease with blood product irradiation: the past, present, and future. Arch Pathol Lab Med 2018 May; 142(5): 662-7.
• * Compernolle V, Chou ST, Tanael S, Savage W, Howard J, Josephson CD,et al; International Collaboration for Transfusion Medicine Guidelines. Red blood cell specifications for patients with hemoglobinopathies: a systematic review and guideline. Transfusion. 2018 Apr 26.[Epub ahead of print]
• Hawksworth J, et al. Enhancement of red blood cell transfusion compatibility using CRISPR-mediated erythroblast gene editing.EMBO Molecular Medicine. e8454 (EPub 26 Apr. 2018)
• * Isasi R, Mastronardi C, Golder M, Allan D, Walker M, Halpenny 4, Yang L, Elmoazzen H, Chargé S. Assessing opportunities and challenges for establishing a national program to distribute cord blood for research. Transfusion. 2018 Apr 1. [Epub ahead of print]
• * Karkouti K, Callum J, Rao V, Heddle N, Farkouh ME, Crowther MA, Scales DC. Protocol for a phase III, non-inferiority, randomised comparison of a new fibrinogen concentrate versus cryoprecipitate for treating acquired hypofibrinogenaemia in bleeding cardiac surgical patients: the FIBRES trial. BMJ Open. 2018 Apr 20; 8(4):e020741.
• * Lamb CT, Gilbert SL, Ford AT. Tweet success? Scientific communication correlates with increased citations in Ecology and Conservation PeerJ (12 Apr. 2018) | About PeerJ
• Ngo A, Gandhi P, Miller WG. Frequency that laboratory tests influence medical decisions. 2017 Jan;1(4):410-14.
• Schwartzstein RM, Roberts DH. Saying goodbye to lectures in medical school - Paradigm shift or passing fad? (N Engl J Med, 15 Aug. 2017) | Older but interesting
• Qadri SM, Donkor DA, Yan M, Ning S, Branch DR, Seghatchian J, Sheffield WP. Red blood cells, still vital after all these years: Commentary on Canadian Blood Services' International Symposium 2017. Transfus Apher Sci. 2018 Apr 19. pii: S1473-0502(18)30129-0. [Epub ahead of print]
• * Seheult JN, et al; Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusions (BEST) Collaborative. Changes in plasma unit distributions to hospitals over a 10-year period. Transfusion. 2018 Apr;58(4):1012-1020. Epub 2018 Feb 5.
• Sherliker L, Pendry K, Hockley . Patient blood management: how is implementation going?: A report comparing the 2015 survey with the 2013 survey of PBM in England.Transfus Med;16 April 2018.
• Thompson AA, et al. Gene therapy in patients with transfusion-fependent ß-thalassemia. N Engl J Med 2018; 378:1479-93.