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SHARING EXPERIENCE: VISIT WESTERN CAPE BLOOD SERVICE

ELIZEBETH MAH

PEGAWAI SAINS (MIKROBIOLOGI) C44

BAHAGIAN TRANSFUSI MIKROBIOLOGI

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  • 18 – 21 November 2023: 34th Regional ISBT Congress in Cape Town, South Africa
  • Presented a poster abstract
    • “Investigation of repeatedly invalid discriminatory assays results in serology and NAT concordant cases: a collaborative approach”
  • Visited virology lab of Western Cape Blood Service (WCBS) – 21/11/23
  • Visit was organised by Grifols Diagnostics
  • Visitors included ISBT congress delegates & exhibitors (Indonesia, Singapore, China, Namibia, Poland, etc)
  • Around 2 hours

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Blood banks in South Africa:

  • Western Cape Blood Service (WCBS)
    • Only cover Western Cape
  • South African National Blood Service (SANBS)
    • Cover whole South Africa except Western Cape

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  • non-profit regional health organisation, dedicated to collecting blood from voluntary blood donors.
  • 5 permanent blood donation centres in Cape Town and 2 regional branches
  • Relocated in November 2022
  • Daily screened around 500 donations
  • Visited apheresis donation area, receiving bay, production area, and laboratory

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AT THE APHERESIS DONATION AREA

  • Uber service for apheresis donors

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  • WCBS app can be download from Google Play store and App store
  • Information include:
    • Donation location
    • Digital donor card
    • Blood stock

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“RECEIVING BAY” AREA

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“PRODUCTION” AREA

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LABORATORY

Decapper instrument

Serology

NAT

IH

PC workstations, freezers, others

Rooms:

Evaluation room

Supervisors rooms

PCR rooms

etc

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IMMUNOHEMATOLOGY & RED CELL SEROLOGY

  • IH: Eflexis
  • Red cell serology:
  • PK7400
  • Qwalys (Diagast) – for IgG antibody screening (first time donors only)

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TTID SCREENING

NAT:

  • Screen - Grifols Panther Ultrio Elite assays & discriminatory assays
  • Viral load – Panther Hologic Aptima Quant DX assays

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Serology:

  • Screen - HIV Ag/ab, anti-HCV, HBsAg - Roche Cobas e801
  • Syphilis – TPHA on PK7400 analyser (Beckman)
  • Confirmation – HBsAg neutralization; anti-HIV Geenius; anti-HCV outsourced; syphilis semiquantitative RPR & manual TPHA (Bio-rad)
  • Abbott architect

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DONATION TUBES

  • 2X 10ml EDTA tubes
    • Serology & NAT

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  • 1x 6ml EDTA tube
    • Syphilis, blood grouping, antibody screening, titre testing, phenotyping

Yellow barcode: First time donor

TTI screening:

V- serology

N- NAT

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INSTRUMENT FOR DECAPPING TUBES

Barcode V & N for Cobas p612 sorting

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BEHIND DECAPPER INSTRUMENT

Track

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SEROLOGY AREA

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LAB TESTING VIEW (NAT & IH)

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PC WORKSTATION, FREEZERS, OTHERS

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OTHER HIGHLIGHTS SEEN DURING ISBT CONGRESS

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SURVIVING A CYBER ATTACK – A BLOOD SERVICE’S TALE�(SPEAKER: JACQUES BRESLAW)

  • End of July 2021, WCBS was a victim of a cyber-attack on their information systems
  • Russian hackers specialized in attacking healthcare organization
  • Affected: most backup destroyed, email, printers
  • Action taken: internal incident response team formed, external partner (both local & overseas)
  • Containment: cut off all internet; shutdown most system that still not affected; reset account password (use script), anti-virus
  • Rebuilt: almost 80 servers; over 300 workstations across all geographical sites
  • Recovery: resources from existing partner brought in to assist
  • Long hours for both IT & non-IT people
  • Need to prioritize which IT service/server/equipment/site (blood bank, lab, clinic, back office)

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  • Forensic: forensic team appointed & start investigation (3/8/2021)
  • Vector of the attack was through a WCBS service provider (3rd party)
  • Meeting with South African police service
  • Reported in news (but none based on facts)
  • WCBS didn’t pay any ransom to cyber attackers

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Managing A Blood Service Through Major Civil Unrest And Natural Disasters, The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) Experience�(SPEAKER: RAVI REDDY)

  • July 2021, SANBS donor centre in Queensmead Mall in Durban was vandalized & looted by protesters
  • As well as three other facilities in different parts of the KZN.
  • Violence continues across the country following the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma.
  • Crowds looting and setting alight shopping centres, medical centres, pharmacies clashed with police in several cities
  • Fires started, highways blocked and businesses and warehouses looted in major cities and small towns in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces.

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  • Happened during President Cyril Ramaphosa was addressing the nation on live TV on the unrest in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
  • The visuals were broadcasted on eNCA during president Cyril Ramaphosa's address.

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  • Computers, medical equipment used for blood collection, blood bags, test tubes stolen
  • Already a challenge collecting blood due to Covid-19
  • Forced to shut their facilities to ensure the protection of employees, donors and property
  • Cannot get blood to hospitals; centres closed; staff afraid to go to work
  • Effect on the movement of blood and samples to SANBS processing and testing facilities, among other functions of the blood bank.

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CHINESE SOCIETY OF BLOOD TRANSFUSION (CSBT)

  • Had a booth at the exhibition area
  • Had a live broadcast of the 2023 “World Blood Donor Day Light Show”

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Shanghai

Shenzhen

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THANK YOU