XMRV-An Emerging Infection Case Study

In the early 1980’s, physicians in San Francisco and New York were puzzled by a growing number of aggressive cases of a rare malignancy known as Kaposi’s sarcoma, as well as a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii (now "jirovecii") pneumonia. These illnesses were discovered initially in homosexual men, but were later seen in a growing number of patients suffering from hemophilia.

Volunteer?

When is a "volunteer" really a volunteer? For blood donor centers, this is a hugely important question to ask, since keeping an all-volunteer blood supply has been considered a mainstay of transfusion medicine for at least the last 25 years. I attended an interesting lecture today given by an incredibly knowledgable person (Gina Ramirez, manager of regulatory affairs) at the blood center where I work, and thought I would share some information from her lecture and my thoughts with you here.