Blood Bank states it did not give syphilis-infected blood to a patient

The Blood Bank on Friday gave reassurances that it is following strict protocols for blood checks and dismissed as inaccurate reports that it had administered the blood of a syphilis carrier to a patient.

In a statement the blood bank gave reassurances that there is no cause for concern said that reports it had administered a patient with the blood of a person suffering from syphilis were inaccurate and not presenting facts properly. It also gave reassurances that there is no reason for concern.

The blood bank was referring to media reports claiming that Nicosia general hospital had given blood to a donor who had been found to be a syphilis carrier. The report concerned a complaint by the patient in question who was alarmed after being asked, following two major operations at the hospital, to go back for testing because they had administrated to him blood from a donor found to be infected with syphilis.

In response, the blood bank said that the donor in question was found to be positive for syphilis in August 2017 and that he was immediately removed from the donors’ registry and banned for life from giving blood. The contaminated blood and its derivatives were destroyed, the blood bank said.

It added that, as per European directives and the protocol of the blood bank itself, they had had to trace all of the recipients of the blood derivatives of the immediately preceding negative blood donation from the same donor and test them.

All of them it said, were found to be negative for any infectious agents.

“This process has been going on for years and will continue to be implemented under the European guidelines and the protocols followed by the blood bank. This is precisely the case of the patient mentioned in the publication, which, unfortunately, is being presented completely differently,” it said.

The blood bank gave reassurances that it is using the most modern methods of blood testing, it is certified with ISO 9001: 2008 and strictly adheres to all the protocols.

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