The Safety of the Blood Supply — Time to Raise the Bar

To the Editor: In their Perspective article on pathogen-reduction technology (PRT) (May 14 issue), 1 Snyder et al. praise the value of this technology. However, they omit a discussion of concerns about the safety and efficacy of PRT, stating that “Numerous studies demonstrate little substantive negative effect from pathogen reduction on plasma proteins or platelets.” A study in the Netherlands was terminated because of increased bleeding complications in the PRT group, 2 and a U.S. study documented five fatal cases of the acute respiratory distress syndrome in the PRT group (1.6%) versus none in the control group. 3 Furthermore, PRT fails to inactivate . . .