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Risk Management in Blood Transfusion Services
Author(s) -
Whyte G.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
vox sanguinis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.68
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1423-0410
pISSN - 0042-9007
DOI - 10.1111/j.1423-0410.1998.tb05405.x
Subject(s) - medicine , blood transfusion , judgement , intensive care medicine , social risk , transmission (telecommunications) , risk management , risk assessment , clinical judgement , public health , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , medical emergency , environmental health , family medicine , immunology , political science , business , nursing , law , electrical engineering , computer security , finance , computer science , engineering
Risk is usually simplistically defined as the probability of an adverse outcome, under‐recognising the importance of perception. The intuitive centre of the risk structure is 1 in a million (10 −6 ), the background risk of death in developed countries. In Australia, current risks of transmission of HIV and HCV by blood transfusion are about 10 −6 , the risk is higher for HBV and lower for HTLV1, but the risk of death from the infections is much less, particularly for HTLV1. When blood service professionals take risk related actions, their judgement must be tempered by contemporary political and social realities and the public's real and disproportionate horror of catastrophe