What's New - November 2018 (By topic)

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

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

General

• Should we pay people for donating blood? (BBC,15 Nov. 2018)
• Tidbit: I only needed a blood transfusion! Why did my cruise leave me behind? (15 Nov. 2018)
• Big Pharma targets U.S. sitcoms (12 Nov. 2018)
• Nine Pints review (Ireland): A deep dive into blood (3 Nov. 2018)
• Anemia may be associated with increased mortality and length of hospital stay (8 Nov. 2018)
  • Krishnasivam D, et al. Anemia in hospitalized patients: an overlooked risk in medical care. Transfusion. 2018 Nov;58(11):2522-8. Epub 2018 Oct 1.
• Platelet transfusion study identifies a change that could improve outcomes for some premature babies (2 Nov. 2018)
  • Curley A, et al; PlaNeT2 MATISSE Collaborators. Randomized trial of platelet-transfusion thresholds in neonates.N Engl J Med. 2018 Nov 2. [Epub ahead of print]
• Billionaire Trump support Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, denies injecting himself with young people's blood (1 Nov, 2018)
• Nine Pints: A bloody good read | Review in Canada's Toronto Star (2 Nov. 2018)
• UK: 'Dying to tell the truth about the tainted blood scandal in the UK' (website relates to Infected Blood Inquiry)
  • 'Evidence' link at top has good info on Canada, Ireland, Australia, plus accusations related to UK
  • To access USA information, register here
• In light of UK's Infected Blood Inquiry, a trip down memory lane in Canada (CBC archived videos):
  • 1984: Canadian Red Cross medical director denies link between AIDS and blood products in Canada (2:00 min) | Mentions cost-benefit ratio & risk with giving aspirin as example
  • 1993: After federal government offers compensation, NS becomes first Canadian province to compensate transfusion-associated AIDS victims (2:34 min) | CBC announcer is Pamela Wallin, now Senator Wallin, sponsor of a bill to ban paid plasma in Canada
  • 1994: The tragedy of Factor VIII concentrate (19:14 min) | Highly recommended: Shows human face of hemophiliacs who contracted AIDS; interview with Dr. Don Francis, who directed USA's CDC AIDS Laboratory Activities in early 1980s

Canada

• ORBCoN Report (Nov. 2018)
• Paying plasma donors is not 'un-Canadian' - it's practical and necessary (13 Nov. 2018)
• National Union of Public and General Employees travels to Ottaw to support bill S-252 that would ban paid plasma (31 Oct. 2018)
• Proposal to ban private “for profit” blood clinics (31 Oct. 2018) | Also see Additional information - sources at end of article
• CBS: Upcoming educational events

China

• Researchers find young plasma restores aged livers in rats
  • Liu A, et al. Young plasma attenuates age-dependent liver ischemia reperfusion injury. FASEB J. 2018 Nov 1:fj201801234R. [Epub ahead of print]

India

• Blood banks in Mumbai run dry as Mumbaikar celebrates Diwali (11 Nov. 2018)
• WHO says India faces a shortage of 3 million units of blood against an annual need of about 12 million (31 Oct. 2018)

South Africa

• SANBS succeeded in increasing proportion of donations from black South Africans fivefold, 2001-15 (31 Oct. 2018)
• Health Department doctors and parents of 5-year-old are at loggerheads about blood transfusion (31 Oct. 2018) | 6:58 min. video

UK

• Hospital medic keeps job after botched blood test checks (14 Nov. 2018)
  • Health & Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPC, Oct 29-Nov. 2, 2018): Allegations | Click on Findings & Order for outcome.
• Other biomedical scientist HCPC hearings in 2018 that serve as informative, educational case studies | Click on Allegations, Findings, Order for details and outcome. | Sample allegations only (more exist)
  • Ian Simmonds | Recorded the incorrect blood group on two occasions. Failed to follow sample acceptance procedures.
  • Michael D. Hampton | Used inappropriate and/or offensive language about and/or to colleagues
  • Eric C. Simons | Assaulted female, Did not perform two immediate rapid spin blood grouping tests when issuing group specific blood to a trauma patient
  • Bernard Watkins | Used an isolate obtained from a faecal sample belonging to another patient in order to indicate he had a salmonella infection
• Touching story about child with Diamond-Blackfan Anaemia (4 Nov. 2018)
• Infected blood inquiry: Blood contamination scandal victim lives in 'state of uncertainty and fear' (3 Nov. 2018)
• 'Dying to tell the truth about the tainted blood scandal in the UK' (website relates to Infected Blood Inquiry)

USA

• FDA presses its campaign against rogue regenerative med players (14 Nov. 2018)
  • FDA warns StemGenex of illegally marketing unapproved cellular product manufactured in a facility with significant violations (FDA press release, 13 Nov. 2018)
• Article in University of Colorado, Colorado Springs: Selling your body…for science: avenues for making money (6 Nov. 2018)
• FDA clarifies policies on dried plasma products for blood transfusions (29 Oct. 2018)
  • FDA: Considerations for the Development of Dried Plasma Products Intended for Transfusion. Draft Guidance for Industry (Oct. 2018)
• Following Las Vegas mass shooting, transfusion needs were met by existing supplies (29 Oct. 2018)
  • Lozada MJ, Cai S, Li M, Davidson SL, Nix J, Ramsey G. The Las Vegas Mass Shooting: An analysis of blood component administration and blood bank donations. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2018 Oct 25. [Epub ahead of print] (Download - Free full text pdf)
• Bonfils, est. 1943 Bonfils Blood Center, named after Denver philanthropist Helen Bonfils, becomes Vitalent in major merge (31 Oct. 2018)
  • Background: Blood Systems unifies its 10 blood center brands under the new name Vitalant (24 Sept. 2018)

Industry news

• Blood transfusion diagnostics market income expected to reach US $2.45 billion by 2023 (12 Nov. 2018) | Forecast based on compound annual growth rate of 8.2%, 2017-23.
• Grifols trial in subgroup of Alzheimer patients may show some promise (29 Oct. 2018) | Patients received plasmapheresis with Albutein alone or combined with IVIG
  • AMBAR - RCT: Study to Evaluate Albumin and Immunoglobulin in Alzheimer's Disease
• Animal blood plasma products and derivatives projected to reach US$1.92 billion by 2024 (7 Nov. 2018) | Who knew?
  • Report preview

Diseases in the news

• Stay tuned...

Resource Library / Links

• NEW TraQ's October newsletter
• NEW TM blog: Nessun dorma (Musings on anti-paid plasma blogs over the years)
• Oct. TM blog: I will remember you (Musings on all those who died in tainted blood tragedies)
• BC PBCO update to Technical Operations Manual (TOM)
  • TMP0002: Blood Product Inventory Assessment, Order and Receipt
  • AOR 0004: Receiving Blood Products from CBS (v 2.0)
  • AOR 0014: Receiving and Issuing Untested or Incompletely Tested Blood Components from Canadian Blood Services (v 1.0)
  • TMP0014: Pretransfusion Examination
  • PTE 0017: Managing Transfusion Requests of Patients on Daratumumab Therapy (v 1.0)
• Canada: ORBCoN Report (Nov. 2018)
• Canada (CBS BloodTechNet program)
  • Choosing Wisely Canada's transfusion recommendations (Entertaining and informative 2-2.5 min. animated videos)
  • Blood & Blood Clots
    • Educational resources housed on CanadiEM dedicated to the management of bleeding and thrombosis
    • Resources include Interactive Quizlets, Blog Posts, and Podcasts
• Canada: CBS-sponsored LearnTransfusion series
• Canada (ORBCoN)
  • Bloody Easy 4 (Guide to Transfusion Medicine, ed. 4)
  • Bloody Easy Blood Administration, v. 2
  • 2018 webcast schedule

Journals, etc.

Free full text papers | * 1 or more Canadian authors

• * Fletcher A, Chen BY, Benrimoh D, Shemie S, Lubarsky S. Lessons learned from a student-driven initiative to design and implement an Organ and Tissue Donation course across Canadian medical schools. Perspect Med Educ. 2018 Oct;7(5):332-6.
• Krishnasivam D, et al. Anemia in hospitalized patients: an overlooked risk in medical care. Transfusion. 2018 Nov;58(11):2522-8. Epub 2018 Oct 1.
• * Lemay AS, Tong TN, Branch DR, Huang M, Sumner C, Oldfield L, Hawes J, Cserti-Gazdewich CM, Lau W. The first case of severe acute hemolytic transfusion reaction caused by anti-Sc2. Transfusion. 2018 Oct 9. [Epub ahead of print]
• Liu A, et al. Young plasma attenuates age-dependent liver ischemia reperfusion injury. FASEB J. 2018 Nov 1:fj201801234R. [Epub ahead of print]
• Lozada MJ, Cai S, Li M, Davidson SL, Nix J, Ramsey G. The Las Vegas Mass Shooting: An analysis of blood component administration and blood bank donations. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2018 Oct 25. [Epub ahead of print] ( Download - Free full text pdf)
• * Menchetti I, Lin Y, Cserti-Gazdewich C, Goldstein J, Law C, Lazarus A, Callum JL. Complications of a severe autoimmune hemolytic anemia crisis: transfusional iron overload and gangrenous cholecystitis. Transfusion. 2018 Oct 6. [Epub ahead of print]
• * Storry JR, et al. International Society of Blood Transfusion Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology: Report of the Dubai, Copenhagen and Toronto meetings. Vox Sang. 2018 Nov 12. [Epub ahead of print]
• * Yazer MH,et al. Vox Sanguinis International Forum on the use of prehospital blood products and pharmaceuticals in the treatment of patients with traumatic hemorrhage. Vox Sang. 2018 Oct 21. [Epub ahead of print]