Your COVID-19 Questions & Answers
Responses from Tom Belhorn
A (good) question from a parent...
Q:
My child has received several transfusions and probably has to get more. Are these blood products being tested for COVID-19? Is there a risk of him getting the infection from a transfusion?
A:
This question has arisen a couple times as early reports revealed that viremia (or at least “RNA-emia”) had been documented in some patients with COVID-19. However, at this point it is thought that acquiring COVID-19 from transfusion of blood products is very unlikely. To date there have been no reported cases of transfusion-transmission of COVID-19 (and there were none ever reported for SARS-CoV1 or MERS). From the academic standpoint, infected individuals who are asymptomatic would likely not be amongst the individuals who would have viremia. Because of this, the FDA has not required testing of blood donors and there is no testing of blood products for COVID-19 currently.