{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T11:14:37Z","timestamp":1789038877010,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":19,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,4]],"date-time":"2025-06-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1748995200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Vox Sanguinis"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background and Objectives<\/jats:title><jats:p>Early in the COVID\u201019 pandemic, blood suppliers faced unique challenges meeting changing demand while maintaining safety for donors, recipients and staff. Actions taken may have altered the composition of the donor base and the frequency of confirmed\u2010positive infectious disease marker (IDM) rates. No studies have evaluated the impact of the pandemic on donations, donor demographics and blood safety across several countries.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Materials and Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>Whole blood\/red blood cell (RBC) donors and donations and confirmed IDM reactivity recorded during from 11 March 2019 to 11 September 2019 (\u201cpre\u2010pandemic period\u201d) and from 11 March 2020 to 11 September 2020 (\u201cpandemic period\u201d) were collected by 11 blood services participating in the Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion (BEST) Collaborative.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Eleven blood services from nine countries reported on over 4 million donations per period. On average, donations dropped by 4.0% between pre\u2010pandemic and pandemic periods, driven by fewer donations from active repeat donors (\u22125.6%) and first\u2010time [FT] donors (\u221214.0%) but partially offset by more donations from lapsed donors (+15.7%). The decline was also driven by fewer donations from male donors (\u22127.6%) and younger donors (i.e., 16\u201325\u2009years: \u221219.0%). Overall, the rate of confirmed IDM positivity dropped from 100.0 to 88.6 per 100,000 donors (\u221211.4%) between pre\u2010pandemic and pandemic periods.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Early in the pandemic, blood donations, particularly from FT donors, decreased. In future respiratory virus pandemics, blood banks should anticipate changes in demand, collection site locations and capacity and donor behaviour. Unlike results in acute catastrophes, lower rates of confirmed IDM positivity were observed, in part related to lower numbers of FT, male and younger donors.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1111\/vox.70055","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,4]],"date-time":"2025-06-04T21:00:20Z","timestamp":1749070820000},"page":"776-783","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Blood donor characteristics and blood safety before and during the <scp>COVID<\/scp>\u201019 pandemic: A <scp>BEST<\/scp> Collaborative international survey"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"120","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1748-4198","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Antoine","family":"Lewin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Affairs and Innovation, H\u00e9ma\u2010Qu\u00e9bec  Montreal Quebec Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9904-9952","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mindy","family":"Goldman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Donation Policy and Studies, Canadian Blood Services  Ottawa Ontario Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5332-2789","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sheila F.","family":"O'Brien","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Epidemiology and Surveillance, Canadian Blood Services  Ottawa Ontario Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"David O.","family":"Irving","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research and Development, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood  Alexandria New South Wales Australia"},{"name":"School of Public Health University of Technology Sydney  Sydney 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Japan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5048-5021","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Allison","family":"Waters","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Irish Blood Transfusion Service, National Blood Centre  Dublin Ireland"},{"name":"UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Social Science University College Dublin  Dublin Ireland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thijs","family":"van de Laar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Donor Medicine Research Sanquin Research  Amsterdam the Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1281-0644","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cyril","family":"Jacquot","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Children's National Hospital  Washington DC 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