Microbial safety of blood components and effi cacy of measures for its improvement

Introduction. The bacterial contamination of blood components represents an on-going challenge in transfusion medicine although dramatic achievements have been achieved in reducing remaining risk of viral infections of blood donors and noninfectious complications of blood transfusion.

Aim: to evaluate trends of bacterial contamination of blood components and measures for its reduction in one blood collection center in recent years.

Materials and methods. The research material presented is comprised of the results of microbiological testing of blood components, collected at the Republican Center for Transfusiology & Medical BioTechnologies, during 2012–2018, as well as the data of aerosol particles 0.5 and 5.0 μm in air volume of 1 m3 and bacterial contamination of air on working areas. Both microbiological, visual, and statistical methods were used in the study.

Results. The data presents results of change in rate of blood components collection, samples taken for microbial analysis, and positive bacterial cultures in Belarusian Republican Center for Transfusiology & Medical Bio Technologies in 2012–2018. As shown, there was low rate of bacterial contamination of plasma and platelet components. The positive results of bacterial contamination of platelets were attributed to doses obtained from whole blood, but not by automatic apheresis. A trend in decrease in the rate of bacterial contamination frequency (р < 0,001) was observed for red cell components from 1,21 (95 % CI 0,39–3,28) in 2012 to 0 (95 % CI 0–0,8) in 2018 per each 100 doses, taken for microbial testing. This was associated with increasing the frequency of doses taken for microbial testing and carrying out the organizational measures in 2015–2016 to reduce airborne bacterial contamination in working areas of blood collection and separation.

Conclusion. The risks of bacterial contamination of erythrocyte — containing, but not other blood components in the organization of blood transfusions were reduced during 2012–2018 due to certifi cation of working areas according to cleaning room classifi cation and other organizational measures.

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