Autologous stem cell transplantation in chronic carriers of hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus affected by onco-hematologic diseases.

Haematologica vol. 84(11):November 1999 nation of blood products. In this case, the transmission of a strain of P. rettgeri originated from the same donor, resulted in the death of two patients. Although Gram negative bacilli have been described as contaminants of blood products, we have not found any references concerning P. rettgeri.2,3 In the present case, the donor could not be studied, but the contamination was probably the result of an asymptomatic bacteriemia in an apparently healthy donor. The fact that cultures from the frozen plasma were negative could be explained by a germicide effect of a storage temperature below –30oC, by an effect of antibodies and complement present in plasma, or because the microbes are predominantly carried by leukocytes.