Paul-Ehrlich-Institut

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Blood Saves Lives – June 14th Is World Blood Donor Day

13 / 2022

  • Blood donations are important – even during the Coronavirus pandemic: they save lives and are indispensable in medical care.
  • Careful donor selection through tests, interviews and deferrals protects against the transmission of infectious diseases through blood products.
  • The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut ensures the safety of blood and blood products in Germany and provides transparent information about necessary measures.

Quote Dr Hilger

Press Release

Blood products in Germany are safe – thanks to a multifaceted monitoring system. The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI), Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines, continuously monitors the safety of blood products, even after authorisation, and orders or initiates additional essential test procedures or other measures if necessary.

After increased occurrences of transfusion-related infections with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut took over responsibility for blood and blood preparations from the former Federal Health Office by law in 1996. In 2005, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut was also appointed the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Quality Assurance of Blood Products and In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD).

Blood donor (Source: Michelle Gordon/Pixabay.com)

The Institute carries out an extensive list of activities tied to the authorisation and safety monitoring of blood products. These tasks include the identification of possible risks to the blood donation system when new infectious agents emerge and the introduction of mandatory risk minimisation measures. Recent measures include the testing or deferral of returnees from high-risk areas for protection against the West Nile virus (WNV) and testing of blood components for transfusion as well as stem cell preparations for the hepatitis E virus (HEV) – both measures introduced in 2020.

SARS-CoV-2 and Blood Donation – Only Short Deferrals Needed

The SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus is the latest new pathogen for which the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut has carried out a risk assessment. There was good news to share: the risk of a transfusion-related transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus is to be regarded as unfounded according to the current state of knowledge.

In order to exclude any risks, persons willing to donate that have a SARS-CoV-2 infection with fever should be deferred from donating for at least four weeks after complete recovery, in accordance with the requirements of the haemotherapy guideline that the German Medical Association draws up in consultation with the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut. After an uncomplicated infection (without symptoms), persons willing to donate must be deferred from donating blood for at least one week.

Call for Blood Donations

In order to continue to provide a sufficient amount of blood components during the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute expressly states that persons willing to donate who have had no contact with SARS-CoV-2-infected persons and do not have flu-like symptoms (fever, cough, breathing difficulties) should continue to donate blood.

Safety of Blood and Blood Products – Transparency through Haemovigilance Reports

The Paul-Ehrlich-Institut's regular haemovigilance reports provide transparency with regard to reports and measures related to blood products and their use in Germany. It documents all reports of serious transfusion reactions in one year and compares them with the reports from previous years. These reports demonstrate the contribution of risk-minimising factors to increases in the safety of blood components.

Literature

Corman VM, Rabenau HF, Adams O, Oberle D, Funk MB, Keller-Stanislawski B, Timm J, Drosten C, Ciesek S (2020): SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic and symptomatic patients and risk for transfusion transmission.
Transfusion 60: 1119-1122.
Online-Abstract

Updated: 13.06.2022