Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability

Zusammenfassung

The Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability will meet to review progress and solicit additional comments from the Committee regarding numerous recommendations made over the past year. Specifically, the Committee will hear updates and discuss previous recommendations on Transfusion Related Acute Lung Injury (TRALI) and access to treatment for individuals with rare blood disorders. The Committee will also review the progress made by the AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks) Task Force on Bacterial Contamination to identify potential studies to standardize, validate, and determine the predictive value of bacterial testing with the intent to extend the dating of platelet products from five to seven days and the possible pre-storage pooling of whole blood derived platelets. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reimbursement issues related to blood and blood products, including plasma-derived therapeutics and their recombinant analogs will be reviewed. In addition, the Committee will be asked to discuss/comment on strategies for addressing infectious agents (known or emerging) that potentially could affect the blood supply.