Transmission of symptomatic parvovirus B19 infection by clotting factor concentrate

The risk of acquiring diseases from transfusion of blood and blood products is well recognized and the issue of parvovirus in haemophiliacs is not a new one. We report two patients with haemophilia acquiring iatrogenic parvovirus B19 infection, resulting in life-threatening sepsis in one, an immunocompetent adult. Over the last 10 years there has been great progress in manufacturing safer products with regard to enveloped viruses such as HIV, hepatitis B and C, A recent outbreak across Europe of hepatitis A in haemophiliacs treated with plasma-derived factor VIII concentrates has made haemophilic treaters concerned about the known (parvovirus B19 and hepatitis A) and the unknown nonlipid enveloped viruses that may be contained in the clotting factor concentrates, because these are resistant to the existing viral inactivating techniques. The possibility of HIV itself mutating into a non-lipid enveloped virus emphasizes the need to seek and use safer products.