News tagged with 'Blood Donation and Other Transplantation'

Federal regulators announced this week that the American Red Cross recently received 134 reports of patients contracting hepatitis B after blood transfusions. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Red Cross, which handles nearly half of the nation's blood supply, failed to investigate the hepati

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the blood banking community to assess and manage the potential risk of West Nile Virus transmission from blood and blood products. A small number of cases of West Nile Virus infection have been linked

A contaminated blood donation scandal that may have led to thousands contracting HIV and hepatitis C led a Royal Canadian Mounted Police task force to file charges Wednesday against the Canadian Red Cross, a U.S. pharmaceutical company and four physicians. According to authorities, a recently concluded five-year inves

More evidence was revealed Monday linking West Nile Virus (WNV) to contaminated blood transfusions. In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Dispatch Report, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that 17 states have reported 33 cases of WNV infection among persons who received a blood transfu

In a recent CBS news report, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accused the Red Cross of repeatedly taking blood from high-risk donors infected with hepatitis and other diseases. According to the FDA, which is asking a Federal judge to fine the organization over its inadequate blood-collecting procedures, the

The Florida Department of Health (FDH) announced Friday that a seven-year-old Alachua County boy recently diagnosed with the West Nile Virus may have contracted the disease from a contaminated blood transfusion. Investigators told health officials that the child recently received "multiple blood products," but insiste

Oregon health officials announced today that as many as 40 people may have received organs or tissue contaminated with the liver disease hepatitis C. Investigators with the Oregon Health Department and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that the tainted organs and tissue came from one O

Concern over the West Nile Virus' link to organ transplants and blood donations intensified this week when a Maryland woman died of the illness less than one month after receiving a kidney transplant. Although initial tests on the organ donor for the virus were negative, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preven

According to a report in Wednesday's issue of New Scientist magazine, transmission-related acute lung injury (TRALI), a preventable adverse immune reaction caused by antibodies in donated blood, is causing close to 500 deaths a year. Physicians usually see TRALI cases after a patient has received donated blood that ha

Government health officials announced yesterday that they have discovered the West Nile Virus in blood collected from three donors. Officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are now warning that the incidence of West Nile contaminated blood in t

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to work with state and local health departments to help control West Nile Virus (WNV). To date there have been a total of 854 human cases of WNV infection reported to CDC from 28 states, the District of Columbia and New York City. There have been 43 fatalit

Under a new agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Cryolife Inc. will resume distribution of donor tissue to medical facilities with new restrictions. In August, the FDA ordered Cryolife to recall distributed human tissue processed from October 3, 2001, to August 2002 after determining that the co

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration, the Georgia State Department of Health, the Florida Department of Health, and the Health Resources and Services Administration continue to investigate possible West Nile Virus transmission through organ transplantation. The CDC'

A Texas medical center announced Tuesday that it has recalled body parts sent to dozens of research establishments nationwide after officials discovered that many may carry the AIDS virus. A spokesperson for the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston told health administrators yesterday that a former e

A 24-year-old Florida man who contracted the HIV virus from a tainted blood transfusion has filed a lawsuit against an area blood bank as well as the hospital where he received the donation. The man is one of two unidentified patients who received tainted transfusions during surgery in mid-March. The plaintiff's atto