Putting blood donors at the heart infectious disease surveillance

ISSUE: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 brought with it an urgent need to generate accurate and real-time surveillance data. The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS), along with many blood establishments worldwide undertook SARS-CoV-2 serosurveillance studies using residual blood donor serum. This response highlighted the role that blood donors can play in informing public health policy. DESCRIPTION: In September 2020 the IBTS undertook a SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence study using blood donor specimens to track the ‘first-wave’ of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland. We utilised our operational capacity for sample collection and screening to quickly generate seroprevalence data. In 2021, the newly established National Serosurveillance Program (NSP) in Ireland invited the IBTS to collaborate on a SARS-CoV-2 serosurveillance study in blood donors which has continued into 2023. RESULTS: This response has led to an enhanced relationship between the IBTS and public health in Ireland and has highlighted a possible future role for the IBTS in providing ‘real-time’ seroprevalence data to policy-makers. This data can be used to inform decision-making in relation to infection prevention and control strategies including vaccination policy. LESSONS: This practice highlights the role that blood establishments can play in informing public health policy and indicates that this role could be expanded in the future in the cases of both emerging infections and vaccine preventable diseases. Blood donor studies offer a unique opportunity to screen healthy populations for the presence of antibodies to infections on a national level and with the opportunity for longitudinal sampling of returning donors. KEY MESSAGES: • The relationship between blood establishments and public health should be further explored in the future to support infectious disease surveillance programmes. • Blood donor studies can provide vital baseline data of healthy populations.