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Abstract

Transfusion of blood products is one of the key aspects of hospital care. Amongthe risk of blood transfusions, bacterial contamination of the blood bags is not so uncommon.Sources of bacteria can be several. Majority of the times the source of bacteria is the arm of thedonor. Second important cause of bacterial contamination of blood transfusion, is bacteria inthe blood stream of the donor. Donor is usually selected with strict selection criteria. Detailedhistory is usually taken. Diversion is another method used to reduce the bacterial contaminationof blood bags. Temperature is also important parameter for the growth of bacteria. RBCs arestored at 4 ˚C and platelets are stored at 22˚C. For the ideal bacterial detection techniques,it is important that they can detect the bacteria as early and as low as possible. At the time ofcollection of sample for viral screening, number of bacteria might be too low to be detected.