The COVID-19 crisis has had a major impact on our lives, with consequences extending far beyond the effects of the novel coronavirus itself. This pandemic has affected almost every aspect of our society, from politics to economy, while even managing to change our everyday routines in the process.
Why is the world facing a blood shortage now?
Of course, this is not the first time this type of situation happened. Other than during states of emergency, blood shortages are, unfortunately, also common in summer months, partly because schools, businesses, and communities usually don’t organize blood drives during this period.
To be clear, it is not only COVID-19 patients who have an increased need of blood transfusion. Although this pandemic is currently under the limelight, people seem to forget that hospitals need to provide services for their other patients as well, be it a surgery, cancer treatment, premature birth, or a traffic accident. Even if the number of these non-coronavirus patients remained unchanged during this situation, the lack of donors makes the current blood shortage historically significant, ultimately presenting as a major public health issue.
Coronaviruses and transmission routes: What do you need to know?
As you probably already know, SARS-CoV-2 is a virus which causes a disease called COVID-19, which mainly manifests as a respiratory infection. The virus spreads from person to person primarily through direct contact, via droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or even talks. Other ways the disease can be spread are by breathing in contaminated aerosols, which are droplets that remain suspended in the air (it is proven that the virus may live in the air for up to three hours), as well as after touching your eyes, mouth, or nose following contact with contaminated surfaces.
In order to better understand the possible transmission routes of COVID-19, we can compare SARS-CoV-2 to known related coronaviruses, such as the SARS-CoV from 2002, which has been isolated from respiratory tract, blood, urine, and stool, and MERS-CoV (first reported in 2012), whose particles were found almost exclusively in the respiratory tract.
Other than the fact that respiratory droplets are the main route of transmission for all these viruses, available data implies that infected stool in SARS-CoV patients was responsible for some cluster outbreak cases.
On the other hand, one study argued that a risk of SARS-CoV transmission via blood existed, backed up by the fact that IgG antibodies were found in the blood of some recipients. However, the presence of antibodies doesn’t necessarily mean that the blood in question was infectious. The maximum risk for this type of transmission was calculated to be 23 recipients per million transfusions, which, albeit extremely low, was still theoretically possible.
Can COVID-19 be transmitted via blood transfusion?
Other than in the respiratory tract, SARS-CoV-2 particles have been detected in some bodily fluids, such as feces, so it still may be possible for the virus to spread via contact with an infected stool sample.
Since COVID-19 is a new disease, it is currently unknown if it can be spread through urine, semen, breast milk, or other bodily fluids. Similar to SARS-CoV, particles of the novel coronavirus have indeed been confirmed in blood samples, but it’s still unclear if the viral dose is sufficient to infect potential recipients.
Given the size of the COVID-19 infected population, it was just a matter of time before people who already donated blood reported they were subsequently diagnosed with COVID-19. One study which followed nine cases of patients receiving red blood cells and platelets from asymptomatic COVID-19 positive donors, concluded that the transfusion transmission did not occur in any of these patients.
A different case study reported a similar conclusion, where the platelet recipient was a young man with a severe aplastic anemia, later tested for SARS-CoV-2 in four different occasions, with every test showing negative results.
Is it safe to donate blood during the pandemic?
Given the fact that coronaviruses are not known to be transmitted via blood, it is of great importance that everyone healthy and willing to donate blood should be encouraged to do so.
Of course, you shouldn’t apply as a donor if you’re feeling sick (especially if you had any respiratory symptoms), have high temperature, travelled abroad, or if you think you have been in contact with a person whose symptoms may imply an existing COVID-19 infection in the last 28 days. In case that you notice any of the COVID-19 symptoms following your donation, you are required to inform the institution you donated the blood to, as soon as possible.
Transfusion clinics, although already well known for their exceptional sanitary conditions, have implemented additional precautionary measures, most of which are just enhanced routine everyday measures, in order to prevent COVID-19 transmission.
These measures include:
- Wearing face masks
- Checking bodily temperature
- Hand sanitizing
- Spacing out the furniture, in order to follow social distancing protocols
- Increased disinfection of all surfaces
It is important to mention that your blood will not be tested for SARS-CoV-2, as there is no proven risk that COVID-19, nor any other respiratory virus, can be contracted this way.
- Photo courtesy of SteadyHealth
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