Front Microbiol. 2018 Sep 4;9:2070. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02070. eCollection 2018.
Pavia CS1, Plummer MM2.
Even though hematogenous spread of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, has been well documented, and there are more than 300,000 cases per year of Lyme disease in the United States, no evidence (anecdotal or published) of transfusion-associated Lyme disease has been reported.
Such a possibility would seem to exist but various factors, as discussed in this perspective, make this less likely to occur.
Nonetheless, if not done already, safeguards need to be put in place at blood collection and dispensing facilities, possibly with the assistance of diagnostic microbiology and immunology laboratories, to ensure that the potential for the transfer of the Lyme disease spirochete through a blood transfusion remains a theoretical consideration rather than a real possibility.
KEYWORDS:
Borrelia burgdorferi; blood donor; blood transfusion; diagnostic issues; diagnostic testing; hematogenous spread; lymedisease
PMID:
30233543
PMCID:
DOI:
Link to Abstract Here
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30233543