334 Confirmed COVID-19 Cases After Blood Donation... Do Recipients Know?

44% of the Blood Transfused to General Patients
Notification Status to Transfused Patients Not Confirmed

Blood donation. Not related to the article. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] It has been revealed that blood from individuals infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was transfused to general patients. Many of these individuals donated blood while asymptomatic and were diagnosed with COVID-19 within two weeks.

According to data submitted by the Korean Red Cross to the office of Kang Sun-woo, a member of the Health and Welfare Committee of the National Assembly from the Democratic Party of Korea, on the 28th, 334 people who were confirmed to have COVID-19 donated blood from March last year to August this year.

Among the blood donated by these individuals, 44% was transfused to general patients, while the remainder was discarded.

According to quarantine guidelines, people confirmed to have COVID-19 are not allowed to donate blood. However, these 334 individuals donated blood as asymptomatic confirmed cases and were diagnosed within 14 days afterward.

The problem is that patients who received blood from confirmed cases find it difficult to immediately know whether the blood they received came from an infected donor. Hospitals are also not obligated to inform patients of this fact.

According to the Red Cross, cases of donors confirmed positive after donation are reported to the hospitals that received the blood, but it is not separately confirmed whether the hospitals notify the patients who received the transfusions.

Representative Kang Sun-woo stated, "Experts say it is difficult to completely rule out the possibility of virus transmission through blood, even in trace amounts," and added, "From the perspective of the transfusion recipients' right to know, quarantine authorities need to take the initiative to track the donors' infection status and notify the patients."