The Blood Bank and Homologous Serum Jaundice

Abstract

UNDOUBTEDLY the most unsatisfactory situation in blood banking today is the inability to exercise any real control over the hazard of transmitting homologous serum jaundice by whole-blood transfusions. The risk is inherent in every bottle of blood issued. The problems of control are multiple: no donor's history is really reliable; any donor may be an innocent carrier; no laboratory test, or group of tests, is specific for the virus of hepatitis; there is no way of treating the blood to kill the virus without violating essential storage or safety requirements for whole blood; there is no susceptible laboratory test animal . . .