Impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) on Blood Services and Blood in Hong Kong in 2003

Summary The current global pandemic of COVID‐19 due to the novel coronavirus SARS‐CoV‐2 is causing considerable loss of life and enormous social and economic disruption. Here, we describe the response of the blood service, the impact on blood donation and the effects on the blood supply in Hong Kong posed by the earlier SARS epidemic in 2002 and 2003. The infection, like SARS‐CoV‐2 was highly contagious through droplet transmission. In the 2003 SARS epidemic in Hong Kong, donor and staff safety was secured by using stringent infection control measures to protect both donors and staff from contacting the virus. All the donors were requested to wear face masks within the donation venue and use an alcohol‐based hand rinse. The donors' body temperature was checked before donation and staff's body temperatures were checked daily. The safety of the blood supply was secured by a donor deferral policy for 4 weeks following contact with a confirmed or suspected case of and a post‐donation call‐back system. Despite scheduling mobile donation sessions and a decrease in donors attending blood donor centers, the blood supply was maintained as there was a 12.8% reduction of the demand of blood and only a 16.9% reduction in the blood donation. Lessons learnt during the epidemic may help preparation for future epidemics and provide a basis for understanding the pathogenesis, laboratory diagnosis and role of coronaviruses in transfusion medicine. These are continuing problems as coronavirus epidemics may recur with future impact on blood collection and blood donation screening. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.