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. 2020 Jun;60(6):1119-1122.
doi: 10.1111/trf.15841. Epub 2020 May 27.

SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic and symptomatic patients and risk for transfusion transmission

Victor M Corman  1 , Holger F Rabenau  2 , Ortwin Adams  3 , Doris Oberle  4 , Markus B Funk  4 , Brigitte Keller-Stanislawski  4 , Jörg Timm  3 , Christian Drosten  1   5 , Sandra Ciesek  2   5
Affiliations

SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic and symptomatic patients and risk for transfusion transmission

Victor M Corman et al. Transfusion. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Oral swabs, sputum, and blood samples from 18 asymptomatic and symptomatic patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection were examined using RT-PCR testing in order to assess the risk of transfusion-related transmission. In asymptomatic patients as well as patients with flu-like symptoms and fever, no SARS-CoV-2 RNA could be detected in the blood or serum despite a clearly positive result in all throat swabs. As patients with symptoms of infectious disease will not be admitted to blood donation, the risk for transfusion transmission of SARS-CoV-2 seems to be negligible.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest.

Comment in

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