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Previous Volume 358:1295-1296 March 20, 2008 Number 12 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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The use of blood transfusions in medicine is so well established that the procedure is an afterthought to many physicians. Scientific advances have rendered blood and blood products extremely safe through the introduction of donor-deferral strategies, infectious-disease testing, pathogen-inactivation methods, and recombinant DNA technologies for particular therapeutic proteins. These advances have dramatically reduced the likelihood of transfusion-transmitted disease so that the risk of transfusion-associated human immunodeficiency virus 1 or hepatitis C infection, for example, is now on the order of 1 in 2 million donated units.¹ Concern persists about the transmission of other infectious agents, for which testing is not . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

From the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, University of California at San Diego, San Diego.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• (2008). New Blood Is Better Than Old Blood. JWatch Oncology and Hematology 2008: 5-5 [Full Text]