Our aim is to evaluate and advance safety of blood transfusion by analysing Transfusion Transmitted Infectious Diseases, coordinating international studies and publishing scientific reports.
Following blood transfusion, there is a risk of transfusion-transmitted infectious diseases (TTID), despite current advanced screening technologies. Infectious agents involved are very diverse and include hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), human immunodeficiency (HIV-1/2), human T-cell lymphotropic (HTLV-I/II), Cytomegalo- (CMV), Parvo- B19, West Nile (WNV) and Dengue viruses. Trypanosomiasis, malaria, and Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) also belong to TTID. TTID can be reduced by donor exclusion, screening for serological infection markers or nucleic acid testing (NAT) by viral gene amplification. Despite this, blood-borne infectious agents are transmitted through transfusion of infected blood donated by apparently healthy and asymptomatic blood donors.
ISBT TTID Working Party Chair, Director Vitalant Research Institute, Senior Vice President Research and Affiliate Professor, Laboratory Medicine, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA
Individual Member Representative at the ISBT TTID WP, Executive, Transfusion Medicine and Technical Services, South African National Blood Service (SANBS)
Individual Member Representative at the ISBT TTID WP, Head, Quality Management and Blood Donor Screening, German Red Cross Blood Service Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany
Brian Custer
ISBT TTID Working Party Chair, Director Vitalant Research Institute, Senior Vice President Research and Affiliate Professor, Laboratory Medicine, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA
Sheila O’Brien
ISBT TTID WP Vice Chair, Associate Director, Epidemiology and Surveillance at Canadian Blood Service, Ottawa, Canada
Marion Vermeulen
Individual Member Representative at the ISBT TTID WP, Executive, Transfusion Medicine and Technical Services, South African National Blood Service (SANBS)
Marion Lanteri
ISBT Corporate Member Representative at TTID WP, Senior Director, Scientific Affairs Cerus, San Francisco, CA, USA
Michael Schmidt
Individual Member Representative at the ISBT TTID WP, Head, Quality Management and Blood Donor Screening, German Red Cross Blood Service Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany
