DESPITE a dramatic improvement in the purity of hospital blood supplies over the past 40 years, new threats to transfusion services, as serious as HIV and hepatitis B and C once were, are emerging.

Roger Dodd, an adviser on blood safety to the World Health Organisation, said a recent outbreak of blood-borne dengue fever in Queensland demonstrated the speed with which viruses could spread from other parts of the world to Australia.

DESPITE a dramatic improvement in the purity of hospital blood supplies over the past 40 years, new threats to transfusion services, as serious as HIV and hepatitis B and C once were, are emerging.

US statistics suggest the risk of transfusion-transmitted infection is only a quarter of what it once was, due to improvements in donor selection, testing and quality management.

However new, rare and potentially deadly diseases are emerging that could have devastating effects, particularly on patients weakened by aggressive medical therapies such as transplants.

Roger Dodd, an adviser on blood safety to the World Health Organisation, said a recent outbreak of blood-borne dengue fever in Queensland demonstrated the speed with which viruses could spread from other parts of the world to Australia.

“While it was contained, it demonstrated the threat that blood- borne illnesses, including resistant strains of malaria, can pose to theblood transfusion service,” he said.

“It is now well recognised that many infections are increasing in frequency, and we need to be ever vigilant in preventing their transmission through blood donation. Many of these diseases are being transmitted around the world, and therefore to Australia, through the rapidity and ease of modern travel.”

Dr Dodd, the vice-president of research and development for the American Red Cross, was in Sydney yesterday as the keynote speaker at a conference of blood transfusion experts.

He said recent examples of infection risks to healthy blood supplies, including hepatitis B and C and HIV, were well-documented and now well-controlled in the blood supply.

More recently, there was an outbreak of West Nile virus across the US and evidence two people contracted mad cow disease through blood transfusions in Britain.