Blood Organizations Launch Nationwide Respiratory Virus Monitoring Program

A coalition of blood collection and testing organizations led by the Vitalant Research Institute has launched a nationwide program to monitor respiratory viruses across the United States. This initiative builds on a previous CDC-funded serosurveillance program that tracked SARS-CoV-2 among blood donors. The program aims to strengthen public health surveillance and preparedness by providing insights into the spread of respiratory viruses and guiding vaccine strategies and public health responses.

The new initiative will establish a group of at least 30,000 repeat blood donors across the U.S., enabling the routine collection and analysis of more than 20,000 blood donation samples each quarter. Investigators will use this data to estimate the incidence of respiratory infections and analyze geographic and demographic variations in infection rates. They will also assess the impact of vaccination status, study risk factors for infection and establish antibody thresholds that may indicate protection against symptomatic infections. Additionally, the program will monitor trends in antibody levels and evaluate their ability to neutralize emerging viral variants.

The program will monitor a range of respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza and other potentially novel respiratory pathogens. Coalition partners include the American Red Cross, Creative Testing Solutions, Westat and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Additional information about the program is available online.