Determination of the degree of bacterialcontamination of whole‐blood collections using anautomated microbe‐detection system

Abstract

For a total of 18,257 units, 0.34 percent (CI, 0.25-0.44) of whole-blood collections appeared to have bacterial contamination (mainly skin-derived). Overnight storage of whole blood at 20 degrees C did not have a significant effect on the prevalence of bacterial contamination.