In the world of medicine, HAEMATOLOGY, and blood transfusion, years of research and in-depth study of the human blood have given clues about how the human body can survive some illnesses unaided while it succumbs to others with or without aid. The human blood has become such an irreplaceable sample in medicine and HAEMATOLOGY as it could, at a glance, tell the overall state of one's health. The human blood contains antigens, antibodies, proteins, carbohydrates, and many other components that could be measured it assayed to show the relative activities of different body organs and systems.
As indispensable as the blood is, it's no surprise that many infectious agents make domicile in the blood and use it as a suitable route to reach and affect other body systems. In retrospect, the blood could be seen as the transportation means by which different substances ranging from nutrients, hormones, drugs, and so on, reach their targetted organs, tissues, or systems.
In blood transfusion sciences which is the act of transfusing ABO and Rhesus compatible blood from a donor to a recipient, it has become very important that these blood are screened for possible infectious agents and infections, this is to prevent infecting the recipient with the donor's illness.
Having this in mind, the most commonly screened infectious agents in blood transfusion sciences includes
1) Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
2) Hepatitis
3) Syphilis
4) and in places where malaria is endemic the malaria parasite.
All these infections, over the years, have been proven to be a major source of concern in blood transfusion, as different cases of cross-infection from a donor to the recipient have been recorded on numerous occasions in the past. These infections, mostly viral, are deadly and are mostly a lifetime disease, meaning they cannot be treated but managed. To reduce the incidence of such cross-infection, the need for proper blood screening of donor's blood before transfusion has become paramount, and hence introduced and strictly implemented in blood transfusion services.
Notwithstanding these great measures, cases of cross infections are still being recorded, and they have been attributed to either negligence, lack of proper materials, or clerical errors.
With this in mind, one would wonder out of the millions of diseases that find refuge in the blood, why do they choose to test run only a few? Well, the answer is quite simple, these few have little or no cure treatment or vaccine, just management.
Still, a silent killer with a hidden agenda remains at large when it comes to transfusion sciences, and that is the virus Cytomegalovirus, CMV. CMV is a circular virus that lacks the potential to cause any serious harm in a healthy person but could manifest in immunocompromised individuals.
CMV resides in the blood and causes almost the same cellular injuries as most deadly viruses. While the body has the potential to fight this disease unaided, an immunocompromised patient is left to the mercy of this deadly virus. Here is the catch, it is not tested for in most transfusion or blood bank laboratories.
Implications
The implications of this are quite simple, People who need a blood transfusion, statistics put it that 70 percent of blood transfusion patients are immunocompromised. This means that 7 out of 10 patients transfused with blood that hadn't been tested for CMV have the chance of contracting the disease.
In the long run, this could cause serious complications, ranging from fever, kidney and liver diseases, respiratory diseases, and even megakaryoblastic anemia. Doctors may be wondering why a patient, after receiving blood for a particular illness is getting worse instead of better, it could be CMV. This is its hidden agenda.
