AABB Reminds Blood Collection Facilities to Report Reactive Donations to its WNV Network to Advance Transfusion Safety

To support the blood community’s efforts to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmission of West Nile virus, AABB’s West Nile Virus Biovigilance Network collects and reports data on donors (of blood, tissue and hematopoietic progenitor cells) with suspected WNV infection in the United States and Canada.

The number of confirmed WNV-reactive donations reported to AABB’s West Nile Virus Biovigilance Network were 173 in 2020, 234 in 2021 and 26 in 2022 (through August 23, 2022). To date in 2022, the highest number of confirmed-positive donations were reported from Louisiana, New York, South Carolina and South Dakota (3), followed by California (2). In 2021, the highest number of confirmed-positive donations were reported from Arizona (53) followed by Texas (20).

This collaborative effort between AABB and blood collectors to report and track potential WNV-reactive donations enhances transfusion safety through the WNV Biovigilance Network communication necessary to implement the Food and Drug Administration’s recommendations for individual donor testing without delay.

Patient safety improves when the blood collection community actively reports WNV testing, and AABB encourages blood collection facilities to support this transfusion safety effort by reporting both initial reactive donations and final test interpretations to the platform.

AABB members subscribed to the email alert list receive notification of all reported WNV activity to help trigger a transition from minipool to individual donor nucleic acid testing (ID NAT). Interested parties may contact hemovigilance@aabb.org to subscribe to the email alert. For more information, please visit the WNV Biovigilance web page.