BACKGROUND: Continued and emerging threats to blood safety (e.g., Zika virus) have furthered efforts to prevent transfusion-transmitted infections (TTI). Pathogen Reduction Technology (PRT) is a safety intervention that inactivates pathogens in blood products to reduce TTI risk. U.S. blood collection centers have begun implementing PRT for apheresis platelets (APH PLT) and plasma since FDA approval in 2014. The National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Hemovigilance Module (HM) is a surveillance system operated by CDC which tracks transfusion-related adverse events, including TTIs, and can be used to monitor the impact of safety interventions like PRT. U.S. healthcare facilities report the occurrence of TTIs and total number of transfused blood units to the module monthly. In January 2016, the HM was modified to identify PRT-treated blood products implicated in TTIs and to quantify total number of transfused PRT-treated components. We present a summary of NHSN modifications to capture PRT-treated blood components and PRT-related data reported from January-September 2016.
METHODS: Beginning January 2016, participating facilities could report the total number of transfused PRT-treated blood products and TTIs associated with these components. Though PRT is available for plasma, data reported to HM was limited and not included in the analyses. The total number of transfused APH PLT, including those treated with PRT were quantified from January-September 2016. Total number of TTI reported among APH PLT were calculated and further stratified by PRT treatment. Rate of TTI reported per 100,000 APH PLT transfused were calculated for non PRT-treated and PRT-treated components.
RESULTS: A total of 137 facilities reported transfusing 155,367 APH PLT units during the study period. Of these, five reported transfusing 1,718 PRT-treated APH PLT. Of 17 TTI reported to the HM, nine were associated with APH PLT. None were reported among PRT-treated APH PLT units. Of these nine TTI, five were due to bacterial contamination and four did not include a pathogen description. The rate of TTI associated with non PRT-treated APH PLT was 5.8 per 100,000 transfused units.
CONCLUSIONS: Since reporting began in January 2016, no TTI have been reported to the NHSN HM among PRT treated APH PLT. As adoption of PRT grows in the U.S., continued surveillance for TTI, particularly among PRT-treated components is important to describe uptake of the technology and to quantify the safety impact of this intervention. Participation in national hemovigilance is vital to monitoring for transfusion-related adverse reactions and to assessing the impact of safety interventions.