Risk for Transmission of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Virus by Blood Transfusion

摘要

To the Editor: In. uenza A pan-demic (H1N1) 2009 virus emerged in early 2009 in Mexico and has since spread worldwide. In Japan, the fi rst outbreak of the novel in. uenza was reported in May 2009 (1) and became pandemic in November. Although no cases of transfusion-transmitted in. u-enza have been published, evidence exists of brief viremia before onset of symptoms (2,3). The possibility of transmission of this virus through transfusion of donated blood is of con-cern. The Japanese Red Cross Blood Centers have intercepted blood prod-ucts with accompanying postdonation information indicating possible pan-demic (H1N1) 2009 infection and at-tempted to identify the viral genome in those products by using nucleic acid amplifi cation technology (NAT).