Scientists say the chances of a blood transfusion giving you COVID are almost nonexistent. The likelihood of a transfusion recipient receiving blood with trace amounts of SARS-CoV-2 was approximately 0.001% — a little over 1 in 100,000, according to researchers.
The study involved testing for SARS-CoV-2 in nearly 18,000 pools of donated blood — over 257,800 single blood donations. Study results show only three of the samples tested positive, all had very low concentrations of the virus and the likelihood of COVID transmission by blood transfusion was insignificant compared to airborne transmission.
"Other studies have shown that, in rare cases where a blood sample tested positive, transmission by blood transfusion has not occurred," said study co-author Sonia Bakkour, a scientist at both the Vitalant Research Institute in San Francisco and the University of California, San Francisco's department of laboratory medicine.
SOURCE: Drugs.com June 1, 2021