1INFECTION Response to the post of (name of the student) Your post is well written and precisely highlights the necessary information pertaining to the infection associated with blood and blood products. Explaining the arguments with the NICE guidelines and the use of personal protective equipment was excellent. It is the most basic strategy to reduce infections due to blood products. The CDC recommendations were justified. The references used to support these facts are also appropriate and relevant to the context. I would like to emphasise on the World Health Organization’s Global Blood Safety Initiative. Safety should be enhanced during the blood transfusion service to reduce the risk of HIV. It is possible by adhering to the strategies mentioned by WHO for safe donor and safe blood for transfusion. It will ensure appropriate clinical use of the blood products and reduce unnecessary transfusion, major risk factor infectious diseases (WHO Library 2017). Talking about Canada, there are multiple steps taken to minimise the risk due to exposure to blood products. The Transfusion Transmitted Injuries Surveillance System in Canada was effective in reporting the cases of transfusion transmitted injuries. Every country should have such system (Mounchili et al. 2014). As per MacDonald et al. (2012), there is no facility existing that maintains the electronic record of transfusions nationally. It is recommended to the government that instead of focusing only on the standard precautions, emphasis should be laid on maintaing the records. Hospital blood banks should have such records, transfused patients to be made aware of the blood products and blood they receive. Every outpatient note must be documented with the label code numbers for the product used.
2INFECTION References MacDonald, N.E., O’Brien, S.F. and Delage, G., 2012. Transfusion and risk of infection in Canada: update 2012.Paediatrics & child health,17(10), pp.e102-e106. Mounchili, A., Leduc, S., Archibald, C., Miller, J. and Hyson, C., 2014. A summary of the TransfusionTransmittedInjuriesSurveillanceSystem:2006-2012.CanadaCommunicable Disease Report,40(18), p.379. WHO Library,. 2017.Global Blood Safety Initiative. [online] Apps.who.int. Available at: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/61178/1/WHO_GPA_INF_89.13.pdf [Accessed 19 Nov. 2017].