A report published in Vox Sanguinis shares insights and information on the development of a “Public Health Research Toolkit” by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) Transfusion Transmitted Infectious Diseases (TTID) Working Party. The complimentary Public Health Research Toolkit was created to serve as a hub of centralized, “resources and links aimed at assisting blood services interested in initiating public health collaboration.”
The authors of the report explained that, “[b]lood donors are an ideal sentinel or convenience population for surveillance for blood-borne disease markers and biomarkers in a healthy population.” They noted that, “[b]lood services are well suited to collaborate in this type of research as they have an infrastructure already in place for recruiting donors; collecting, transporting, and testing large numbers of samples on a daily basis; many frequent repeat donors, which permits longitudinal studies; information systems for capturing data; and a range of expert personnel who support these operations. In addition to being trained in their area of specialty, all staff are trained [in] following standard operating procedures, good manufacturing practices and biosafety procedures. In some facilities, procedures may already be in place for collecting blood samples and blood products for research purposes, including obtaining research consent at the time of donation.”
They describe how blood services are underused as a means for public health surveillance due to, “lack of awareness amongst public health agencies as to the potential of blood donors, lack of knowledge of the data available and siloed interaction between public health and blood services that focuses on transfusion issues.” They cite collaborative efforts between public health authorities and blood services during the COVID-19 pandemic as a positive example of working together and an opportunity for blood services to build momentum, “to increase the utilization of blood donors and to leverage their data to contribute to public health surveillance and research, as well as emergency preparedness against emerging transfusion-transmitted pathogens. It is also an opportunity for blood services to expand their services to support their blood operations.”
The ISBT TTID Working Party further explained that the ISBT Public Health Research Toolkit, “provid[es] a framework to enable researchers and/or blood services to increase the recognition of the role that blood donors can play in public health and to efficiently gain commitment and funding from various agencies for new research and surveillance. The toolkit consists of two main sections:
- information on how and what blood services can offer to public health; and
- how they can enhance the ability to support emerging outbreaks once discovered.”
ISBT plans to update the toolkit with additional information as it, “becomes available.”
Citation: Stanley, J. Busch, M., Erikstrup, C., et al. “The International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) Public Health Research Toolkit: A report from the Surveillance, Risk Assessment and Policy Sub-group of the ISBT Transfusion Transmitted Infectious Diseases Working Party.” Vox Sanguinis. 2024.