Woman dies after hepatitis E virus infection from blood transfusion

Don't they screen the blood for all types of Hepatitis?

Somebody messed up. Not the kind of "first" Japan usually likes to go for.

In the west we only here about the first a b c we had out own scandal in Canada. Sad to hear from something that shouldn't of happened.

A couple of years ago I needed a lot of blood in hospital here, for which I can only give huge thanks. My only worry was whether the blood I was receiving had been screened for such things. Luckily the lifeline left no such after-effects.

i had a close friend die from Hep C, and many friends infected by Hep B. i work in a hospital, but never heard of Hep E. i will be up all night researching.

Mar044, here/hear, out/our, of/‘ve. No spell checker and no edit button here, sadly, so you own what you type...

@reckless - there is also recognition of: Hepatitis F (togavirus), G (RNA Flavivirus) and TT (DNA Virus). Hep Z was published in 2003, but was later revealed to be a joke. Virologist's sick (!) sense of humour!

Never get a blood transfusion in Japan I know of 3 people personally that all caught something from transfusions.

Not me! :8)

Actually I have a rare blood type; reading this thread has got me thinking I should maybe give blood back in thanks.

Think yourselves lucky that you don't have to have a Blood transfusion... Steppocotus is on the increase in Japan and if you fall foul of it, a Blood transfusion is mandatory. Good luck to you. Screening of Blood is of upmost importance, it would be great if Japan could eventually join the International Community and stop believing that they are different from the rest of the World.

The hepatitis E virus can be found in deer and wild boar meat.

Oh no! Those 2 are my favorite types of meat! I've had raw deer meat in Mie Prefecture. It is absolutely delicious.

got me thinking I should maybe give blood back in thanks

Not sure how this works these days, but if you have a rare blood type, you should perhaps check out whether you can be put on a register for emergencies. Regular blood donation may not be so useful in your case. I'm out of touch on this kind of thing, so please correct me. I just remember a situation in Osaka many years back when we were desperately trying to find a donor for a young baby with a rare blood type. But the hospital came through by locating a donor from Okinawa who was flown to Osaka.