What's New - January 2021 (By topic)

Also see What's new - chronological | What's new - Archives

General News | Specific countries | Diseases | Industry News | Resource Library | Journals
Collaborating Site: CSTM
NEW TraQ's December newsletter

General

• NEW TM blog: Sweet Dreams (Musings on the benefits of a well-rounded education)
• Operation Aderlass doctor Mark Schmidt jailed for almost five years (15 Jan. 2021)
• Report finds low adverse event rate from COVID-19 vaccine (8 Jan. 2021)
  • CDC COVID-19 Response Team; Food and Drug Administration. Allergic reactions including anaphylaxis after receipt of the first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine — United States, December 14–23, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 6 January 2021. (Free full text)
• Operation Aderlass, Operacion Puerto approach closure with two different outcomes (8 Jan. 2021)
• Pig saved by transfusion from fellow pig after ingesting rat poison (6 Jan. 2021) | Feel good news item to make you smile
• Who is doing all those COVID-19 tests? Why you should care about medical laboratory professionals (14 Dec. 2020)

Canada

• CBS: Shelly and Randy are the 2020 recipients of the inaugural Logan Boulet Award. Annual recognition event hosted by Canadian Blood Services which celebrates exemplary donors, community leaders and volunteers for their generous contributions and commitment to Canada’s Lifeline. | Related:
  • Halifax physician plans unforgettable gift for her husband to find after her death (23 Aug. 2019)
• CBS: Top 5 blog posts of 2020 (31 Dec. 2020)
• CE/CPD:
  • CBS: Upcoming educational events (Four in Jan. 2021)

China/Hong Kong

• Hong Kong: HK man dies after transfusion from COVID-19-infected donor, but it's unlikely that's why he died (31 Dec. 2020)

India

• MGM Medical College, Indore, to begin NAT testing to detect hepatitis, HIV (9 Jan. 2021)
• "I am too poor to afford my daughter’s bone marrow transplant" Please help (9 Jan. 2021)
• Punjab State Legal Services Authority files public interest litigation to ensure relief and rehabilitation for families of thalassaemia-affected children given HIV-positive blood (28 Dec. 2020)

Indonesia

• Hunting for blood (14 Jan. 2021) | Ongoing shortages due to pandemic

Nepal

• High-tech blood transfusion center to be built in Pokhara (12 Jan. 2021)

Pakistan

• Minister orders crackdown on unregistered blood banks (1 Jan. 2021)

UK

• Infected Blood Inquiry:
  • 8 presentations by haemophilia clinicians in 2021 (15 Jan. 2021) | Videos
  • Restriction order by Chair Brian Langstaff (14 Jan. 2021) | Grants continued anonymity to Witness W1303
  • Update following latest coronavirus restrictions (5 Jan. 2021)

USA

• HHS allocates $300M for Abbott COVID-19 rapid tests or 'equivalent' testing tech (8 Jan. 2021)
• One American dies from Covid-19 every 33 seconds as the vaccine rollout hits snags (5 Jan. 2021)
• CSL Plasma paying Rhode Islanders $100 for COVID-19 plasma donations (4 Jan. 2021)

Industry news

• ForaCare Suisse AG introduces Rapid COVID-19 Antigen Test (8 Jan. 2021)
• Platelet-rich plasma market to expand at a CAGR of 11.4% from 2019 to 2027 (1 Jan. 2021)
• "Drugs don't work if people can't afford them": Big Pharma to raise prices of 300 medications on Jan. 1 (31 Dec. 2020) | Related:
  • Reuters exclusive: Drugmakers to hike prices for 2021 as pandemic, political pressure put revenues at risk (31 Dec. 2020)
  • Vaccines boost Big Pharma’s image, but won’t change its ways (29 Dec. 2020)
  • Covid vaccines offer chance for big pharma to improve its image (4 Dec. 2020)
• Also see USA above (Abbott and CSL)

Diseases in the news

• COVID-19: See General news, Indonesia, China/Hong Kong, USA and Industry news (Big Pharma) above and Journals (Masser, et al.) below.
• HIV: See India and UK above

Resource Library

• NEW Starting January 2021 items in the Resource Library will consist of new or recently added ones. The remaining resources will be in Resource Library Archives. You can also access each country's archived resources individually:
  • Australia | Canada | UK
• NEW TraQ's December newsletter
• NEW TM blog: Sweet Dreams (Musings on the benefits of a well-rounded education)
• 36^th International ISBT Congress: Abstracts (Virtual meeting, 12-16 Dec. 2020) | 385 pp. pdf
  • Author index
  • Abstract Table of Contents
• CANADA:
  • NEW Canadian Society of Transplantation: National Transplant Consensus Guidance on COVID-19 Vaccine (18 Dec. 2020) | Guidance to organ donation organizations and regional transplant and donation programs to guide the management of COVID-19 vaccination in transplant recipients
  • NEW CSTM 2020 abstracts
  • TraQ's monthly newsletter
  • CBS: Top 5 blog posts of 2020 (31 Dec. 2020)
  • CBS: Upcoming educational events (Four in Jan. 2021)
  • ORBCoN
    • 2021 webcast schedule

  Journals, etc.

  Free full text papers | * 1 or more Canadian authors

• Free sample journal issues:
  • Transfus Med Rev 2020 Jan;34(1):1-72. (14 free text articles)
  • Brit J Haematol 2017 June;177(6):827-1007. | Special Issue:Low to middle income countries
  • Immunohematology (J of American Red Cross): 1988-2017. (Articles in these years are free)
• Open access journal: The Lancet Digital Health 2019 May;1(1):e1-e44.
• Open access journal: Hematology, Transfusion and Cell Therapy, Journal of the Brasilian Association of Hematology, Hemotherapy and Cell Therapy (ABHH)
• Transfus Med Hemother 2019 Oct; 46(5): Many open access articles
• Open access journal (May 2020): The Lancet Microbe
• * Anani WQ, Gottschall J, Denomme GA. Red cell genotyping of rare blood donors: donation behaviour and data visualization. Vox Sang. 2021 Jan 5. Epub ahead of print.
• CDC COVID-19 Response Team; Food and Drug Administration. Allergic reactions including anaphylaxis after receipt of the first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine — United States, December 14–23, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 6 January 2021.
• Davison KL, Reynolds CA, Andrews N, Brailsford SR; UK Blood Donor Survey Steering Group. Blood donation by men who have sex with men: using evidence to change policy. Vox Sang. 2021 Jan 5. Epub ahead of print.
• Ducrocq G, Calvo G, González-Juanatey JR,et al; REALITY investigators. Restrictive vs liberal red blood cell transfusion strategies in patients with acute myocardial infarction and anemia: Rationale and design of the REALITY trial. Clin Cardiol. 2021 Jan 6. Epub ahead of print. | PubMed abstract
• * Fingrut W, Messner HA, Allan D. Targeted recruitment of optimal donors for unrelated hematopoietic cell transplantation: The Stem Cell Club process. Hematol Oncol Stem Cell Ther. 2020 Dec;13(4):220-231.Epub 2020 Apr 20. | PubMed abstract
• Frigo MG, Agostini V, Brizzi A, Ragusa A, Svelato A. Practical approach to transfusion management of post-partum haemorrhage. Transfus Med. 2021 Jan 5. Epub ahead of print.
• * Goldman M, Townsend M, Magnussen K, Dunbar N. Vox Sanguinis International Forum on mitigation strategies to prevent faint and pre-faint adverse reactions in whole blood donors: Summary. Vox Sang. 2020 Nov 27. Epub ahead of print.
• Gammon RR, Tyler L, Alvarez H, et al. An international effort and use of social media to save a young girl. Vox Sang. 2020 Dec 21. Epub ahead of print.
• Joyner MJ, Carter RE, Senefeld JW, et al. Convalescent plasma antibody levels and the risk of death from Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2021. Epub 2021 Jan 13. | Related:
  • Katz LM. (A little) clarity on convalescent plasma for Covid-19 (Editorial) N Engl J Med. 2021. Epub 2021 Jan 13.
• * Kron AT, Collins A, Cserti-Gazdewich C, et al.; University of Toronto Quality in Utilization, Education and Safety in Transfusion (QUEST) Research Program. A prospective multi-faceted interventional study of blood bank technologist screening of red blood cell transfusion orders: The START study. Transfusion. 2021 Jan 10. Epub ahead of print.
• Kumukova I, Trakhtman P, Starostin N,et al. Quality assessment of red blood cell suspensions derived from pathogen-reduced whole blood. Vox Sang. 2020 Nov 22. Epub ahead of print.
• * Li EW, Lee A, Vaseghi-Shanjani M, Anagnostopoulos A, et al. Multimedia resources to support the recruitment of committed hematopoietic stem cell donors: Perspectives of the most-needed donors. Transfusion. 2020 Dec 2. Epub ahead of print.
• Masser BM, Ferguson E, Thorpe R, et al. Motivators of and barriers to becoming a COVID-19 convalescent plasma donor: A survey study. Transfus Med. 2020 Dec 27. Epub ahead of print. | PubMed abstract
• Nakamura Y, Furuta Y, Tokida M, et al. A survey of nurses to assess transfusion practice at the bedside using an electronic identification system: Experience at a university hospital. Transfus Med. 2021 Jan 4. Epub ahead of print.
• Peetz AB, Kuzemchak MD, Streams JR, et al. Regional ethics of surgeon resuscitation for organ transplantation after lethal injury. Surgery. 2021 Jan 9:S0039-6060(20)30822-9. Epub ahead of print.
• * Perelman I, Fergusson D, Lampron J, et al. Exploring peaks in hospital blood component utilization: a 10-year retrospective study at a large multisite academic centre. Transfus Med Rev. 2020 Nov 12:S0887-7963(20)30071-7. Epub ahead of print.
• Prax M, Spindler-Raffel E, McDonald CP, et al.; ISBT Transfusion-Transmitted Infectious Diseases Working Party, Subgroup on Bacteria. Establishment of transfusion-relevant bacteria reference strains for red Blood cells. Vox Sang. 2020 Dec 20. Epub ahead of print. | PubMed abstract
• Rahajeng IM, Muslimah F. Towards safe blood-transfusion practice for nurses: Effectiveness of comic-based learning tool. Enferm Clin. 2020 Dec;30 Suppl 7:126-10. English, Spanish.
• Ramezanpour N, Zaker F, Biswas A, Dorgalaleh A. Inhibitor in congenital factor VII deficiency; a rare but serious therapeutic challenge-a systematic literature review. J Clin Med. 2021 Jan 8;10(2):E211. | PubMed abstract
• Ravula U, Chunchu SR, Gente VK. Whole blood derived covid convalescent plasma: An economical option among developing countries. (Letter) Transfus Apher Sci. 2021 Jan 1:103045. Epub ahead of print.
• Shin HJ, Kim JH, Park Y, et al; Korea University Bloodless Medicine Center Scientific Committee. Effect of patient blood management system and feedback programme on appropriateness of transfusion: An experience of Asia's first Bloodless Medicine Center on a hospital basis. Transfus Med. 2020 Dec 27. Epub ahead of print.
• * Silva E Silva V, Hornby L, Almost J, et al. Burnout and compassion fatigue among organ and tissue donation coordinators: a scoping review. BMJ Open. 2020 Dec 15;10(12):e040783. | PubMed abstract
• Sugimoto N, Eto K. Generation and manipulation of human iPSC-derived platelets. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2021 Jan 13:1–17.Epub ahead of print. | PubMed abstract
• Suleiman L, Bakhtary S, Manuel SP. Defining core competencies in transfusion medicine for resident physicians: A multi-specialty Delphi consensus study. Transfusion. 2021 Jan 7. Epub ahead of print.
• Villeneuve A, Arsenault V, Lacroix J Tucci M. Neonatal red blood cell transfusion.. Vox Sang. 2020 Nov. 27.
• * Weiss MJ, Lalani J, Patriquin-Stoner C, et al. Summary of international recommendations for donation and transplantation programs during the coronavirus disease pandemic. Transplantation. 2021 Jan 1;105(1):14-7. | PubMed abstract
• * Weiss MJ, Krmpotic K, Cyr T, et al. A program of research to evaluate the impact of deceased organ donation legislative reform in Nova Scotia: the LEADDR Program. Transplant Direct. 2020 Dec 15;7(1):e641. | PubMed abstract
• Wouters E, Steenhuis M, Schrezenmeier H, et al. Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers and potency for convalescent plasma donation: a brief commentary. Vox Sang. 2020 Dec 23. Epub ahead of print.