
Although many people may experience benign viral infections transmitted through blood transfusions, they are usually not a threat to their wellbeing. However, the xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) may change all of that.
What is it?
The XMRV is contracted in much the same way as HIV, which is raising concerns of health officials. The virus was discovered in 2006 after tumor samples were taken from men who had a particular, but uncommon form of prostate cancer. Further research showed that healthy people may also carry this virus in their blood and that the virus does not seem to appear in chronic fatigue syndrome patients.
What is Being Done About the XMRV virus?
There are a number of studies currently running to determine the risk of XMRV. Since this is a newly-founded virus, not much is known about it yet. There are already twelve different tests used to block dangerous diseases from entering the blood supply at blood banks. These tests screen for HIV, hepatitis C, and many more. There is research in trying to find screens for other diseases, such as dengue, malaria, and the human variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
In 2006, the United States collected approximately 16 million units of red blood cells and whole blood. Almost half of the blood is collected by the American Red Cross, which estimates that 10,000 donors a year are infected with pathogens that are actively screened for; almost half of these infections are hepatitis C.
Due to worldwide travel, it is important to recognize that infections not typically found in a particular country can quickly be found there. A lot of viruses have long incubation periods, which makes it more difficult to decipher if the cause was from a blood transfusion.
The dilemma is best summarized by Simone A. Glynn, who is branch chief of transfusion medicine and cellular therapies at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: "You do not want to transfuse an infectious agent that causes problems. But you do not want to take blood out of the system that is not causing any problems."
Resources:
The Wall Street Journal – Potential Risk to Blood Supply Probed
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