Can Adverse Health Effects Result from a Transfusion?
Physicians prescribe transfusions to preserve millions of patients' lives each ear. Adverse effects associated with the procedure are unusual. Donor screening procedures, the use of sterile blood collection equipment, and highly effective laboratory testing combine to nearly eliminate the risk of infectious disease transmission. Weighing the benefits of transfusion against the risk can help patients put the risk into perspective.

The risk of HIV infection from a blood transfusion has been all but eliminated thanks to donor screening and laboratory testing. In the United States, the risk of exposure to HIV (the virus which causes AIDS) as the result of a transfusion of a unit of blood is estimated to be approximately one in 2.5 million. Since 1985, no patient has been reported to have contracted the AIDS virus from a transfusion provided by Puget Sound Blood Center.

The small risk of HIV infection from a blood transfusion is due to a "window period." During this period, newly infected individuals may not test positive for the AIDS virus. However, with the recent introduction of an additional test for HIV (the HIV-1 p24 antigen test,) the average "window period" has been reduced to approximately 16 days. Pre-donation screening procedures designed to identify people whose behavior puts them at risk of HIV infection, help prevent donation by HIV-infected individuals during the "window period."

Historically, the most common form of transfusion-transmitted infection is hepatitis (B or C), viral infections which cause inflammation of the liver. Donor screening and laboratory testing reduce the risk of hepatitis as much as medical technology allows, but cannot eliminate the risk entirely. Hepatitis can be transmitted by people whose tests show no evidence of the virus.

The risk of hepatitis C infection from a unit of transfused blood is estimated to be approximately one in a million, and the risk of hepatitis B, approximately one in 140,000.1

Occasionally, patients develop chills or fever during a transfusion. These allergic reactions – which occur in less than five percent of transfusions – are usually not serious and can be treated effectively by a physician.

1. Stramer SL ed. Blood Safety in the New Millenium. AABB, Bethesda, MD 2001.