Public Policy Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Blood Supply in the United States

Overview

Journal Am J Public Health

Specialty Public Health

Date 2021 Mar 18

PMID 33734852

Citations 7

Authors

William Riley

Kailey Love

Jeffrey McCullough

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated an acute blood shortage for medical transfusions, exacerbating an already tenuous blood supply system in the United States, contributing to the public health crisis, and raising deeper questions regarding emergency preparedness planning for ensuring blood availability. However, these issues around blood availability during the pandemic are related primarily to the decline in supply caused by reduced donations during the pandemic rather than increased demand for transfusion of patients with COVID-19.The challenges to ensure a safe blood supply during the pandemic will continue until a vaccine is developed, effective treatments are available, or the virus goes away. If this virus or a similar virus were capable of transmission through blood, it would have a catastrophic impact on the health care system, causing a future public health emergency that would jeopardize the national blood supply.In this article, we identify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on blood supply adequacy, discuss the public health implications, propose recovery strategies, and present recommendations for preparing for the next disruption in blood supply driven by a public health emergency.

Citing Articles

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on blood donation and transfusions in the United States in 2020.

Basavaraju S, Free R, Chavez Ortiz J, Stewart P, Berger J, Sapiano M Transfusion. 2023; 63 Suppl 4:S1-S7.

PMID: 37052192 PMC: 10543386. DOI: 10.1111/trf.17359.

Use of blood products during the first months of COVID-19 pandemic period: A single center report.

Pal S, Reger B, Alizadeh H, Szomor A, Vereczkei A, Kiss T Heliyon. 2023; 9(3):e14391.

PMID: 36919084 PMC: 9995388. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14391.

Donor motivation and psychosocial research.

Sayers M Transfusion. 2022; 62(9):1912-1916.

PMID: 35811303 PMC: 9545312. DOI: 10.1111/trf.17024.

Scalable production and complete biophysical characterization of poly(ethylene glycol) surface conjugated liposome encapsulated hemoglobin (PEG-LEH).

Banerjee U, Wolfe S, OBoyle Q, Cuddington C, Palmer A PLoS One. 2022; 17(7):e0269939.

PMID: 35802716 PMC: 9269976. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269939.

Consecutive Hits of COVID-19 in India: The Mystery of Plummeting Cases and Current Scenario.

Suvvari T, P C, Kuppili S, Kandi V, Kutikuppala L, Kandula V Arch Razi Inst. 2022; 76(5):1165-1174.

PMID: 35355747 PMC: 8934068. DOI: 10.22092/ari.2021.356147.1791.

References

To L, Dunnington T, Thomas C, Love K, McCullough J, Riley W . The United States' potential blood donor pool: updating the prevalence of donor-exclusion factors on the pool of potential donors. Transfusion. 2019; 60(1):206-215. DOI: 10.1111/trf.15573. View

Gniadek T, Mallek J, Wright G, Saporito C, AbiMansour N, Tangazi W . Expansion of hospital-based blood collections in the face of COVID-19 associated national blood shortage. Transfusion. 2020; 60(7):1470-1475. PMC: 7283630. DOI: 10.1111/trf.15869. View

WALLACE E, Churchill W, SURGENOR D, An J, Cho G, McGurk S . Collection and transfusion of blood and blood components in the United States, 1992. Transfusion. 1995; 35(10):802-12. DOI: 10.1046/j.1537-2995.1995.351096026360.x. View

Corman V, Rabenau H, Adams O, Oberle D, Funk M, Keller-Stanislawski B . SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic and symptomatic patients and risk for transfusion transmission. Transfusion. 2020; 60(6):1119-1122. PMC: 7267331. DOI: 10.1111/trf.15841. View

Ripperger T, Uhrlaub J, Watanabe M, Wong R, Castaneda Y, Pizzato H . Orthogonal SARS-CoV-2 Serological Assays Enable Surveillance of Low-Prevalence Communities and Reveal Durable Humoral Immunity. Immunity. 2020; 53(5):925-933.e4. PMC: 7554472. DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2020.10.004. View

Velazquez-Kennedy K, Luna A, Sanchez-Tornero A, Jimenez-Chillon C, Jimenez-Martin A, Valles Carboneras A . Transfusion support in COVID-19 patients: Impact on hospital blood component supply during the outbreak. Transfusion. 2020; 61(2):361-367. DOI: 10.1111/trf.16171. View

Barriteau C, Bochey P, Lindholm P, Hartman K, Sumugod R, Ramsey G . Blood transfusion utilization in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Transfusion. 2020; 60(9):1919-1923. PMC: 7361376. DOI: 10.1111/trf.15947. View

Simon T . Where have all the donors gone? A personal reflection on the crisis in America's volunteer blood program. Transfusion. 2003; 43(2):273-9. DOI: 10.1046/j.1537-2995.2003.00325.x. View

Carfi A, Bernabei R, Landi F . Persistent Symptoms in Patients After Acute COVID-19. JAMA. 2020; 324(6):603-605. PMC: 7349096. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.12603. View

10.

Katz L . Is SARS-CoV-2 transfusion transmitted?. Transfusion. 2020; 60(6):1111-1114. PMC: 7323094. DOI: 10.1111/trf.15831. View

11.

Sullivan M, Wallace E . Blood collection and transfusion in the United States in 1999. Transfusion. 2005; 45(2):141-8. DOI: 10.1111/j.1537-2995.2004.03288.x. View

12.

White D, Angus D . A Proposed Lottery System to Allocate Scarce COVID-19 Medications: Promoting Fairness and Generating Knowledge. JAMA. 2020; 324(4):329-330. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.11464. View

13.

McCullough J, McCullough J, Riley W . Evolution of the nation's blood supply system. Transfusion. 2016; 56(6):1459-61. DOI: 10.1111/trf.13525. View

14.

Custer B, Johnson E, Sullivan S, Hazlet T, Ramsey S, Hirschler N . Quantifying losses to the donated blood supply due to donor deferral and miscollection. Transfusion. 2004; 44(10):1417-26. DOI: 10.1111/j.1537-2995.2004.04160.x. View

15.

Fredrick J, Berger J, Menitove J . Strategic issues currently facing the US blood system. Transfusion. 2020; 60(5):1093-1096. DOI: 10.1111/trf.15769. View

16.

Chang L, Yan Y, Wang L . Coronavirus Disease 2019: Coronaviruses and Blood Safety. Transfus Med Rev. 2020; 34(2):75-80. PMC: 7135848. DOI: 10.1016/j.tmrv.2020.02.003. View

17.

Snyder E, Stramer S, Benjamin R . The safety of the blood supply--time to raise the bar. N Engl J Med. 2015; 372(20):1882-5. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1500154. View

18.

Riley W, Schwei M, McCullough J . The United States' potential blood donor pool: estimating the prevalence of donor-exclusion factors on the pool of potential donors. Transfusion. 2007; 47(7):1180-8. DOI: 10.1111/j.1537-2995.2007.01252.x. View

19.

Baron D, Franchini M, Goobie S, Javidroozi M, Klein A, Lasocki S . Patient blood management during the COVID-19 pandemic: a narrative review. Anaesthesia. 2020; 75(8):1105-1113. PMC: 7497056. DOI: 10.1111/anae.15095. View

20.

Roberts N, James S, Delaney M, Fitzmaurice C . The global need and availability of blood products: a modelling study. Lancet Haematol. 2019; 6(12):e606-e615. DOI: 10.1016/S2352-3026(19)30200-5. View