Infectious Screening of Blood Components: Is There Still a Need for Further Inventions?

The current issue of Transfusion Medicine and Hemotherapy is dedicated to novel aspects of infectious screening of blood products. In times of continuous technological evolution and ongoing progression in the development of pathogen reduction technologies, we need to question whether infectious screening of blood products is still necessary and what the future will look like. The articles in this issue focus on viral [1, 2, 3] and bacterial screening assays [4, 5], reflecting current national test strategies and requirements. In the historical review of the introduction of nucleic acid amplification techniques (NAT) in transfusion medicine, it became obvious that new developments are required to counteract the biological diversity and adaptability of blood-borne pathogens and the need for constant attention and mindfulness in surveillance systems