Increase in human West Nile and Usutu virus infections, Austria, 2018.

Between 28 June and 17 September 2018, 27 cases of human West Nile virus infections were recorded in Austria; four cases of West Nile neuroinvasive disease, 11 cases of West Nile fever, six infections detected by blood donation screening and six imported cases. In addition, 18 cases of human Usutu virus infections (all blood donors) were recorded. This is the highest number of annual infections recorded in Austria since the introduction of both viruses.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of a pathogen inactivation technology against clinically relevant transfusion-transmitted bacterial strains.

Background: To increase blood safety, various procedures are currently implemented, including donor selection, optimized donor arm disinfection, and diversion. In addition, pathogen inactivation (PI) techniques can be used for platelets (PLTs) and plasma concentrates.

Study Design And Methods: This study investigated the clinical efficacy of an inactivation technique for different blood components at two time points (12 and 35.

West Nile virus lineage 2 infection in a blood donor from Vienna, Austria, August 2014.

Eastern Austria is neighbouring regions with ongoing West Nile virus (WNV) transmissions. Three human WNV infections had been diagnosed during the past decade in Austria. The Austrian Red Cross Blood Service (ARC-BS) started a first voluntary screening for WNV in blood donors from Eastern Austria by Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) in June 2014.

No detection of the retrovirus xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus in individuals with hemophilia.

Background: Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) is a retrovirus that has recently been related to prostate cancers and chronic fatigue syndrome. Since other human-pathogenic retroviruses, such as HIV, human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) and -II, are known blood-transmitted pathogens, XMRV might present another hazard associated with products derived from in vitro cultures of human or animal origin, or blood component-based therapeutics. Here, we investigated whether XMRV was transmitted to individuals with hemophilia and frequent exposure to plasma-derived or recombinant clotting factors.

Evaluation of two, commercial, multi-dye, nucleic acid amplification technology tests, for HBV/HCV/HIV-1/HIV-2 and B19V/HAV, for screening blood and plasma for further manufacture.

Background: The cobas TaqScreen MPX Test, version 2.0, a multiplex, multi-dye nucleic acid amplification technology (NAT) test from Roche was evaluated by two European Blood Banks, the German Red Cross Blood Donor Service, Frankfurt, Germany and Centro de Hemoterapia y Hemodonación de Castilla y León, Valladolid, Spain. In addition, the cobas TaqScreen DPX Test was evaluated for the simultaneous detection and quantitation of parvovirus B19 and the detection of hepatitis A virus (HAV).