The Impact of Emerging Infectious Diseases on Chinese Blood Safety

•The prevalence of 9 EIDs among Chinese blood donors was estimated.•Sentinel serological-investigation and NAT testing on these EIDs in epidemic regions and during epidemic seasons among blood donors is likely to be highly informative.•Donor-recipient linkage studies of the 9 EIDs discussed in this review are lacking in China.•Collaborative global efforts to understand the transfusion risk from EID agents should be encouraged.

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) have always been one of the major threats to public health. Although the implementation of mandatory testing for 4 classical transfusion-transmitted infectious-human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and syphilis-has reduced the transfusion risk of these pathogens, the potential threat of various EID agents and their constantly evolving variants to blood safety in China is not fully understood. This review presents 9 representative EID agents that are autochthonous and epidemic nationally or regionally in China. The epidemiologic status and distribution of these EID agents among donors and/or healthy populations are summarized. The potential risks of these EID agents to blood safety are discussed. The review also explores strategies to strengthen hemovigilance systems and studies to further evaluate the impact of EID agents on blood safety.