Can Ozone be Useful for Banked Blood or Fresh Frozen Plasma?

Abstract

There are a few problems involved with this question. The first is to examine whether ozonization of blood, blood fractions or plasma is able to further reduce the risk of infection. Although it is unlikely that zero-risk transfusion will ever be achieved, the safety of blood has been greatly improved by carefully checking eligible blood donors at various levels and then applying sensitive and precise screening tests. The achievement has been quite remarkable in the USA (Schreiber et al., 1996; Glynn et al., 2000) but there remains the risk of infectious blood collected during the window period (Ling et al., 2000). Moreover, two-thirds of the countries throughout the world, in which the number of infected donors is significant, do not yet have appropriate systems to ensure a safe blood supply (WHO, 2000).

“Blood transfusion is like marriage; it should not be entered upon lightly, unadvisedly or wantonly, or more often than is absolutely necessary” Beal, 1976