A warning system is being introduced to the UK to protect blood supplies from tropical viruses that could spread through climate change.
The NHS Blood and Transplant system will first of all test around 5,000 samples, taken from consenting blood donors, for three viruses that are known to pose a threat to the UK. They are tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), West Nile virus and Usutu virus.
The agency says that no indigenous human cases of Usutu or West Nile virus have yet been found in the UK. Usutu has been found in birds, while mosquitos capable of spreading west Nile virus have been found in Southern England.
TBEV has been found in some ticks – and four cases of TBEV infection, probably acquired from a bite, have been reported in the UK, according to the agency.
The blood samples will be combined with data on donor exposures, travel history and vaccinations, collected by the UK Health Security Agency, to create the CODONET archive.
Dr Heli Harvala, consultant medical virologist at NHSBT said: “This targeted sampling of donors provides a response capability in the event of future infectious disease threats to blood safety arising from climate change.
“By combining the test results with travel and vaccination history, we can estimate how likely it is that people got their infections here or whether the antibodies might be from vaccination.
“It also provides the means to demonstrate that a virus is not present in the blood donor population, which is equally important operationally and would guide future testing strategies.”
Professor Peter Simmonds, a virologist at the University of Oxford and director of the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Genomics, said: “CODONET is an archive of blood donor samples, where we will also collate their travel and vaccination history, and their exposure to ticks, mosquitos or other animals.
“This would allow us to immediately initiate targeted screening in particular blood centres or specific postcodes and obtain study samples that are appropriately consented for surveillance studies or other purposes. There are potentially additional uses for wider surveillance required by NHSBT or UKHSA.”
Professor James Neuberger, Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO), said: “Especially with climate change and increasing mobility of people, the risk to the safety of blood remains a major concern and we, with our partners, remain vigilant to detect new and changing risks and put measures in place to protect the public.”
Source: NHS Blood and Transplant
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