Dise？o de un sistema de vigilancia para infecciones transmitidas por transfusión de sangre en Cienfuegos

the viral infections are one of the most feared complications from blood transfusions. despite the efforts directed at reducing or eliminating this risk, this is an unsolved problem at present. the medical selection of the donor, the infection screening and the post-transfusion surveillance are some activities to be performed to prevent this situation. these activities are duly documented in cuba; however, there are difficulties in carrying them out from the managerial, epidemiological and medical care viewpoints. for the above-mentioned reasons, this research study was aimed at organizing the surveillance of transfusion-borne infections with systemic approach, for the better control of donors and greater blood safety. a developmental study was conducted in three phases: diagnosis, planning and design. individual qualitative techniques and group qualitative techniques were used. the final design of the surveillance system was presented. it comprised the five basic surveillance subsystems, that is, clinical diagnosis, laboratory, statistical, epidemiological, technical-material and community. with this system, cienfuegos province contributes to the attainment of one of the immediate objectives of the cuban transfusional medicine program - the setting up of a hemosurveillance system throughout the country.