Genotypic and phenotypic characteristics of Escherichia coli involved in transfusion-transmitted bacterial infections: implications for preventive strategies.

Background: Transfusion-transmitted bacterial infections (TTBIs) are the main residual infectious complications of transfusions. Escherichia coli and platelet (PLT) concentrates may be epidemiologically associated, leading to severe, if not lethal, TTBIs. We investigated the genotypic and phenotypic reasons for this clinically deleterious combination.

Residual risk and retrospective analysis of transfusion-transmitted bacterial infection reported by the French National Hemovigilance Network from 2000 to 2008.

Background: Regarding blood safety, transfusion-transmitted bacterial infection (TTBI) remains the most frequent infectious risk. The incidence of these episodes needs to be assessed and updated frequently to accurately manage this risk.

Study Design And Methods: TTBIs were reported by the French network of local correspondents in each hospital and blood center.

[The blood donors' haemovigilance in France].

This work aim to present the descriptive analysis of serious adverse reactions in donors (dSAR's), which were notified in 2010 and 2011 in the French national haemovigilance database "e-FIT" (Internet secured haemovigilance reporting system). Some data, which are necessary for this analysis, also come from the regional haemovigilance coordinators' reports (RHC). The other parts of haemovigilance in the context of donation, without donors adverse reactions, such as post-donation information (PDI), adverse events occurred in the blood collection steps of the transfusion chain and epidemiology are not subject to this work analysis.

[Factsheets: support in the analysis of recipients' adverse reactions].

In order to help the analysis of adverse effects of transfusion, factsheets have been written by working groups of the French agency for the safety of health products ANSM. Each factsheet deals with a blood transfusion side effect and is composed of five parts, including pathophysiological mechanisms, diagnostic criteria, management recommendations, etiologic investigations and rules for filing the notification form to ANSM. Since 2006, 11 factsheets have been published on the French haemovigilance network website.