The safety of the blood supply relies on multiple steps, including donor interview and selection, donor screening by serologic tests, screening of collected blood components for markers of infection, inactivation procedures for plasma-derived products, and leukodepletion of certain blood components (see Tables 2.2, and 2.3).¹ Blood donors are interviewed to exclude people with a history of exposures or behaviors that increase the risk that their blood will contain an infectious agent. All blood donations are tested routinely for syphilis, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV) types 1 and 2, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) types 1 and 2; selected donations are tested for cytomegalovirus (CMV). Since July 2003, most donations are tested for West Nile virus. Since January 2007, most donations were tested on an investigational basis for Trypanosoma cruzi , the etiologic agent of Chagas disease.

Table 2-2

Table 2-3