Risks, benefits and the role of stakeholders in pathogen reduction technology

While Canada’s blood supply is currently very safe, risks remain, prompting blood suppliers to develop a more effective strategy to minimise the risk of transmitting infectious agents through blood transfusion. Pathogen reduction technology provides an additional way to protect the blood supply from new threats. However, the uptake of this new technology has been slow, reflecting the safety of the current system, the success of surveillance and screening methods, the lack of knowledge regarding pathogen reduction technology and the impact of pathogen reduction on blood quality and recipient safety. In the absence of public debate, the legacy of previous adverse events and the challenges of negotiating perceptions of risk, our objective in this article is to explore stakeholder perceptions of the challenges of introducing pathogen reduction technology in Canada. In this article, we provide a debate about risk communication and assessment drawing on data from a study of 2010 that used focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders, including media, blood suppliers, blood or blood product recipients and implementers of pathogen reduction technologies to examine stakeholders’ perceptions of risk assessment and communication. We found that there was a broad understanding among stakeholders of the need to effectively communicate the risks and benefits of pathogen reduction technology and to provide accurate information. Consequently, we predict that public acceptance of the new technology will be largely based on its perception of the risk of pathogen reduction technology.