What's New - Chronological (September 2020)

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• BC PBCO
• NEW TraQ's August newsletter

26 September

• General news: The Lancet alters editorial practices after Surgisphere COVID-19 scandal (22 Sept. 2020) | Related:
  • The Editors of The Lancet Group. Learning from a retraction. The Lancet 2020. Epub 2020 Sep 17. (Free full text)
  • Who’s to blame? These three scientists are at the heart of the Surgisphere COVID-19 scandal: Indonesian Red Cross (8 June 2020)
• India: Legislation vital in ensuring access to safe blood (24 Sept. 2020) | India has a shortage of 1.9 million units of blood. Covid-19 lockdown has further aggravated the blood shortage.
• Indonesia: Rising demand, fewer donors, blood supply running out (23 Sept. 2020)
• UK (Infected Blood Inquiry - News):
  • Fury as HIV contaminated blood documents destroyed when scandal emerged (26 Sept. 2020)
  • UK government warned about contaminated blood risk for haemophiliacs, new documentary reveals (26 Sept. 2020) | Related:
    • ITV documentary In Cold Blood delves into chilling 1980s haemophilia scandal (25 Sept. 2020)
  • Camden family devastated by contaminated blood scandal shocked to find daughter also tested for viruses without consent (24 Sept. 2020)
• USA: ARC pleads for Black blood donors (24 Sept. 2020)
• Crowder LA, Eder AF, Steele WR. Effectiveness of the post-donation instruction sheet in conveying information to repeat blood donors. Vox Sang. 2020. Epub 2020 Sep 19.
• Franchini M, Glingani C, Del Fante C, et al. The protective effect of O blood type against SARS-CoV-2 infection. (Letter) Vox Sang 2010. Epub 2020 Sep 19. (Free access)
• Grey S, Bolton-Maggs P. Pulmonary complications of transfusion: Changes, challenges, and future directions. Transfus Med. Epub 2020 Sep 13.
• Valiani S, Terrett L, Gebhardt C, Prokopchuk-Gauk O, Isinger M. Development of a framework for critical care resource allocation for the COVID-19 pandemic in Saskatchewan. CMAJ. 2020 Sep 14;192(37):E1067-E1073. (Free full text)

22 September

• Canada: Sanofi and GSK sign agreements with Canada to supply up to 72 million doses of adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine (Press release, 22 Sept. 2020)
• USA: KFF study finds cost of COVID-19 tests range from $20 to $850 (Press release,15 July 2020) | Full report
• USA: Cost of coronavirus test depends on many factors (7 Mar. 2020)
• Amjad F, Fatima T, Fayyaz T, Khan MA, Qadeer MI. Novel genetic therapeutic approaches for modulating the severity of -thalassemia. (Review) Biomed Rep. 2020 Nov;13(5):48. Epub 2020 Sep 2.
• Sanderson B, Coiera E, Asrianti L, Field J, Estcourt LJ, Wood EM. How well does your massive transfusion protocol perform? A scoping review of quality indicators. Blood Transfus. 2020 Sep 18. (Free full text)

21 September

• Nurse, a co-defendant in the trial of a German sports doctor, weeps as she tells German court of her blood doping role (19 Sept. 2020)
• Sickle cell disease patients lack education on transfusions (17 Sept. 2020)
  • Lawrence RH, Singleton A, Branscomb J. Blood transfusion: knowledge, perspectives, and experience of individuals with sickle cell disease. J Patient Exp 2020. Epub 10 Sept. 2020. (Open access)
• Georgia: EU launches project worth €1.3 m to strengthen Georgia’s blood safety system (17 Sept. 2020)
• UK (Infected Blood Inquiry - News): Treasury refuses to publish key documents on treatment of haemophiliacs infected with HIV (21 Sept. 2020) | Reason: Would be “disruptive” and material might be “distorted” by the media.
• USA: New free antibody program at KY Blood Center for blood donors is praised as COVID-19 antibody test is too expensive in U.S. (18 Sept. 2020)
• Leeper CM, Yazer MH, Triulzi DJ, Neal MD, Gaines BA. Whole Blood is superior to component transfusion for injured children: a propensity matched analysis. Ann Surg. Oct. 2020;272(4):590-4.

19 September

• Canada: ORBCon's Sept. 2020 newsletter | Related:
  • ORBCoN 2019-20 Year in Review
• USA (AABB): Graphic summaries of COVID-19 weekly hospital transfusion services surveys | Latest: 14-16 Sept. 2020
• USA: McKinsey Report - Improving the fragile US supply of blood (15 Sept. 2020)
• USA: FDA issues an 'untitled letter' to Laguna Beach Aesthetics, Cosmetic Dermatology and Laser Center regarding its marketing of an unapproved cellular product derived from adipose tissue (3 Sept. 2020) | Product is marketed as 'stem cell therapy'; Untitled letters explained
• Cassignol A, Marmin J, Mattei P, et al. Civilian prehospital transfusion - experiences from a French region. Vox Sang. 2020;10.1111/vox.12984. EPub 2020 Sep 8.
• Larsson L, Sandgren P, Ohlsson S, et al. Non-phthalate plasticizer DEHT preserves adequate blood component quality during storage in PVC blood bags. Vox Sang. 2020;10.1111/vox.12982. Epub 2020 Sep 12. (Open access) | PubMed abstract
• Lowe G, Walker I, Gibson B, Tait C, Bagot C. History of the West of Scotland Haemophilia Centre, Glasgow, 1950-2019. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2020;50(3):330-8.

18 September

• The immune hallmarks of severe COVID-19 (16 Sept. 2020)
• German doctor accused of masterminding international blood doping network (Operation Aderlass) goes on trial (16 Sept. 2020)
• Indian study shows no survival benefit of plasma in COVID-19 (15 Sept. 2020)
• Leung E, Johnston A, Olsen B, et al. Laboratory practices for manual blood film review: Results of an IQMH patterns of practice survey. Int J Lab Hematol.2020;10.1111/ijlh.13343. Epub 2020 Sep 17.
• Lewkowicz D, Wohlbrandt A, Boettinger E. Economic impact of clinical decision support interventions based on electronic health records. BMC Health Serv Res. 2020;20(1):871. Epub 2020 Sep 15. (Open access)
• Shamseer L, Moher D, Maduekwe O, et al. Potential predatory and legitimate biomedical journals: can you tell the difference? A cross-sectional comparison. BMC Med. 2017;15(1):28. Epub 2017 Mar 16. (Open access)

16 September

• General news: WHO supplies Iran with COVID-19 antibody ELISA tests (14 Sept. 2020)
• General news: Fast and efficient method to produce red blood cells developed (14 Sept. 2020)
  • Zeming KK, Sato Y, Yin L, et al. Microfluidic label-free bioprocessing of human reticulocytes from erythroid culture. Lab Chip. 2020;10.1039/c9lc01128e. Epub 2020 Aug 14. (Free full text)
• UK: Facebook partners with NHS to roll out blood its donation feature (15 Sept. 2020)
• USA: AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine trial in U.S. on hold (15 Sept. 2020)
• Zimbabwe: Woman seeks $40k USD for son's bone marrow transplant (15 Sept. 2020) | Doctor in India said that since he was an only child the family will need to pay an extra US$10,000 to get a matching donor.
• Cruciani M, Franchini M, Mengoli C, et al. The use of whole blood in traumatic bleeding: a systematic review. Intern Emerg Med. 2020;10.1007/s11739-020-02491-0. Epub 2020 Sep 15.

15 September

• Canada (Resource Library): Rare Blood Program at CBS (11 Sept. 2020)
• Canada (Resource Library): ORBCoN has 2 newly revised “Bloody Easy Lite” eLearning program for physicians and healthcare professionals who prescribe blood components/products
• UK: Imperial College London researchers to test inhaled coronavirus vaccines (14 Sept. 2020)
• UK: Oxford University to resume COVID-19 vaccine trial after pause (12 Sept. 2020) | Related:
  • AstraZeneca restarts COVID-19 vaccine trial (12 Sept. 2020)
• Industry news: Dutch T-cell therapy firm Neogene Therapeutics wins massive €93M series A funds to treat solid tumors (14 Sept. 2020)
• Cresswell K, Sheikh A. Can disinfection robots reduce the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare and educational settings? J Med Internet Res. 2020;22(9):e20896. Epub 2020 Sep 3. (Free full text)
• Larsson L, Sandgren P, Ohlsson S, et al. Non-phthalate plasticizer DEHT preserves adequate blood component quality during storage in PVC blood bags. Vox Sang. 2020;10.1111/vox.12982. Epub 2020 Sep 12.

13 September

• USA: Texas county plans to pay COVID-19 survivors up to $100/donation for plasma (12 Sept. 2020)
• Bertsimas D, Li ML, Paschalidis IC, Wang T. Prescriptive analytics for reducing 30-day hospital readmissions after general surgery. PLoS One. 2020;15(9):e0238118. Published 2020 Sep 9. (Open access)
• Hayakawa M, Tagami T, IIjima H, et al. Restrictive transfusion strategy for critically injured patients (RESTRIC) trial: a study protocol for a cluster-randomised, crossover non-inferiority trial. BMJ Open. 2020;10(9):e037238. Published 2020 Sep 6. (Free full text)
• Krishnamurthy AV, Mathialagan J, Raghavan ATMV, Srinivasan S. Analysis of patterns of adverse transfusion reactions and management: a novel initiative toward hemovigilance in a teaching hospital of south India. J Lab Physicians. 2020;12(2):133-40. (Free full text)
• Waheed U, Noor FA, Saba N, et al. Genetic diversity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in asymptomatic blood donors in Islamabad, Pakistan. J Lab Physicians. 2020;12(2):92-7. (Free full text)
• Waheed U, Wazeer A, Saba N, Qasim Z. Detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA in blood donations. (Letter) J Lab Physicians. 2020;12(2):163-4. (Free full text)

11 September

• Look back at lessons from 9/11 (USA):
  • September 11 blood donations "wasted" (21 Feb. 2002)
  • Schmidt PJ. Blood and disaster--supply and demand. N Engl J Med. 2002;346(8):617-20.
  • Gordon NT, Schreiber MA. Frozen blood and lessons learned from 9/11. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2014;77(3):479-85.
• General news: Revisiting the use and management of blood in Europe, in times of crisis and beyond (9 Sept. 2020)
• UK (Infected Blood Inquiry - News): Welsh victims 'still waiting for equal payments' (10 Sept. 2020)
• USA: More African American blood donors needed to help sickle cell patients (11 Sept. 2020)
• USA: Arlington County Fire Department to start administering field blood transfusions (10 Sept. 2020)

9 September

• Industry news (AstraZeneca): Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine trial paused after participant falls ill (9 Sept. 2020)
• Fosgaard T, Hansen L, Jacobsen C, Sørensen E, Romose M, Ullum H. Can text messages save lives? A field experiment on blood donor motivation. Transfusion. 2020;60(3):460-5.
• Stabler SN, Li SS, Karpov A, Vu EN. Use of fibrinogen concentrate for trauma-related bleeding: a systematic-review and meta-analysis. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2020; 10.1097/TA.0000000000002920. Epub 2020 Aug 28. 
• Tao Z, Xu J, Chen W, et al. Anaemia is associated with severe illness in COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study. J Med Virol. 2020;10.1002/jmv.26444. Epub 2020 Aug 19. (Free full text)

6 September

• Nigeria: Sickle cell carriers can marry each other – Expert (4 Sept. 2020)
• Uganda: Blood donors demand payment as shortages continue (3 Sept. 2020)
• UK: NHS: Men must step up and donate their plasma to help defeat coronavirus (5 Sept. 2020)
• USA: Dozens of hospitals poised to defy FDA order on emergency use of COVID-19 plasma in favor of clinical trial (4 Sept. 2020)
• Fiedler SA, Boller K, Junker AC, et al. Evaluation of the in vitro function of platelet concentrates from pooled buffy coats or apheresis. Transfus Med Hemother. 2020;47(4):314-24. (Free full text)

3 September

• India: Illegal sale of plasma on the rise across Andhra Pradesh (1 Sept. 2020)
• Namibia: Blood Supplies Low due to COVID-19 (3 Sept. 2020)
• Nigeria: Former president tells government to invest more money in blood transfusion (3 Sept. 2020)
• Pakistan: Punjab Home Dept seeks report on illegal plasma transfusions at high prices (2 Sept. 2020)
• UAE: Statistics from Dubai Blood Donation Centre, which received more than 41,000 donors in 2020 (31 Aug. 2020)
• UK (Northern Ireland): Victims of contaminated blood scandal welcome increased financial support (2 Sept. 2020)
• Masselink LE, Erikson CE, Connell NT, et al. Associations between hematology/oncology fellows' training and mentorship experiences and hematology-only career plans. Blood Adv. 2019 Nov 12;3(21):3278-86. (Free full text)
• Yin Y, Li L, Gong L, Xu H, Liu Z. Effects of riboflavin and ultraviolet light treatment on pathogen reduction and platelets. Transfusion. 2020; 10.1111/ trf.16053. Epub 2020 Aug 31.

2 September

• Industry news: Drop in plasma donations hits immunoglobulin supply (2 Sept. 2020)
• Resource Library (Canada):
  • Exploring the frontiers of IVIG-associated hemolysis (CSTM/CBS/H-Q 2020 meeting presentation by Drs. Jacob Pendergrast and Donald Branch) | Includes 1 hr 15 min video.
  • CBS Clinical Guide to Transfusion: Ch. 8 Pre-transfusion Testing (Updated 13 July 2020)
• Arnold DM, Heddle NM, Cook RJ, et al. Perioperative oral eltrombopag versus intravenous immunoglobulin in patients with immune thrombocytopenia: a non-inferiority, multicentre, randomised trial. Lancet Haematol. 2020;7(9):e640-e648.
• Conway EM, Pryzdial ELG. Is the COVID-19 thrombotic catastrophe complement-connected? (Review) J Thromb Haemost. 2020;10.1111/jth.15050. Epub 2020 Aug 6. (Free full text) | PubMed abstract
• Leblanc JF, Germain M, Delage G, O Brien S, Drews SJ, Lewin A. Risk of transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 by transfusion: A literature review. Transfusion. 2020;10.1111/trf.16056. Epub 2020 Aug 15.
• Mykhailova O, Olafson C, Turner TR, D Alessandro A, Acker JP. Donor-dependent aging of young and old red blood cell subpopulations: Metabolic and functional heterogeneity. Transfusion. 2020;10.1111/trf.16017. Epub 2020 Aug 19.

1 September

• Transfusion blog: Revolution (More musings on using artificial intelligence in transfusion medicine)
• TraQ's August newsletter
• Indonesia: Jakarta’s blood supply is running dry (29 Aug. 2020)
• UK (Infected Blood Inquiry - News):
  • Northern Ireland Health Minister increases contaminated blood payments (30 Aug. 2020)
  • Ex-Royal Free haemophilia director to address Inquiry in October (29 Aug. 2020) | Scroll to hear audio clip of the haemophilia director's comments
• UK (Infected Blood Inquiry): Registration opens for first three weeks of hearings (28 Aug. 2020)
• Tomazos I, Sierra JR, Johnston KM, Cheung A, Brodsky RA, Weitz IC. Cost burden of breakthrough hemolysis in patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria receiving ravulizumab versus eculizumab. Hematology. 2020;25(1):327-34. (Open access)