Safe supplies: few infections in UK blood and tissue donors.

AIMS/OBJECTIVES: Here, we describe the annual review of the UK blood services' infection surveillance schemes for 2017 (www.gov.uk/government/publications/safe-supplies-annual-review).

BACKGROUND: The joint NHS Blood and Transplant/Public Health England Epidemiology Unit was set up in 1995 to ensure that blood and tissue safety is maintained, inform donor selection and testing policy and add to public health knowledge.

METHODS: Several surveillance schemes for blood, tissues and bacterial screening collect the numbers of donations tested, reactive and confirmed positive in order to monitor trends in infection rates in donors and calculate residual risk of infection. Investigations of potential transfusion transmissions in recipients are also monitored.

RESULTS: In the UK in 2017, the risk of testing not detecting a potentially infectious hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus or HIV donation was estimated as less than one in two million donations. One hepatitis A virus and one hepatitis E virus transmission incidents were proven to be transfusion-transmitted by unscreened donations.

CONCLUSIONS: The Safe Supplies annual review provides a clear picture of the very low risk associated with blood and tissues in the UK nowadays. In November 2017, the blood services for England, Wales and Scotland implemented recommendations to reduce the deferrals for higher risk sexual behaviour from 12 to 3 months. The surveillance schemes are adapted to remain fit for purpose as testing and donor selection change.