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A PATIENT HAS been infected with the Hepatitis B virus from a blood transfusion in Ireland.
The Irish Blood Transfusion Service Board (IBTS) has said the patient’s case is not a result of a test failure.
In a statement today, the IBTS said the blood donation was made in the window period when the presence of the virus cannot be consistently detected, even by the most sensitive tests available.
“This is a rare, one-in-two million event, and does not have any implications for blood that will be transfused to patients in the future,” Dr Stephen Field, medical and scientific director of the IBTS said.
The service said 1.2 million donations have been tested today and there has been no other confirmed transfusion transmitted infection of Hepatitis B.
Hepatitis B virus is a common infection of the liver. It’s transmitted through exposure to Hepatitis B infected blood and body fluids.
The infection occurred when a blood donation was taken and the red cells were transfused to a patient, as is standard medical procedure.
In this instance, the donation was tested through molecular screenings, and it was shown to be negative for viral markers, including Hepatitis B.
However, the donor was found to have acute Hepatitis B infection and the IBTS was informed by the public health authorities immediately.
The archived sample of the donation again tested negative. However, an additional test for Hepatitis B virus DNA tested positive.
An investigation carried out by Grifols/Hologic, the manufacturer of the test used to check for Hepatitis B, found that the test was performed to the expected standard of sensitivity for detecting Hepatitis B.
The IBTS contacted the patient’s clinician who was informed of the test results. The patient was recalled for testing and was found positive for the virus.
The patient is being managed by a medical team.
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Responding to the incident today, Minister for Health Simon Harris said that as far as he’s aware, this was the first instance of this in the country.
“I think it is important to say that this is not a testing failure on behalf of the blood transfusion service who’ve already outlined this. It’s an extraordinarily rare situation where blood was donated where it wasn’t possible for testing to detect the Hepatitis B. I think all of us are thinking of the patient at this very sensitive time.”
He said that the IBTS will continue to keep him and the public updated, but sought to ease fears among the wider public.
“There is no ongoing patient safety incident – and that is the strongest message that I want to give to patient and indeed to donors today.”
An estimated 257 million people are living with Hepatitis B. However, it’s uncommon in Ireland compared to many countries and blood donors are among those with the lowest prevalence of the virus.
Couriers not gonna like when he wants to stop for a sambo and the boss is tracking his every move.
Norris Cole would have loved this
Great idea, good luck to him
This app could come in handy for thieves to real time track a delivery van full of goods worth thousands of euros and intercept it.
Assuming that said thieves have placed an order and have a tracking number to track the van in real time in order to intercept it. Either that or they’ll have to have prior knowledge to someone placing an order and have access to that persons email to get the package tracking number. That would, of course, need us to assume that they are using the services of a hacker!
Now presumably, if there’s a hacker on board, they might go after slightly bigger fish than aunt Mary’ new hoover!
I also wouldn’t like to work for a company were they were tracing my every step, seems a bit a creepy.
Says the man who, from the profile picture, looks like he’s hiding in the bushes!
Too much grand theft auto aasif….?
Stop begrudging and just appreciate the fantastic start-up. Stop automatically looking at the negatives and what ‘could’ happen. They’ve obviously been looked into. Well done to all involved in Xpreso
The Irish are a nation of begrudgers. They hate to read about a success story. Moan, moan, moan.
In fairness this isn’t that big, have been to various interviews where MDs or senior management want to develop a auditing,tracking applications/tool. It’s not completely a new idea
have your say