Emerging threats to the blood supply: West Nile virus and beyond

Abstract

It is now more than 40 years since Sir Macfarlane-Burnet announced to the world that ?one can think of the mid-20th century as marking the virtual elimination of infectious disease as a significant factor in life? (1962). Along similar lines, Jesse Steinfeld, at the beginning of his reign as US Surgeon General, famously said that it was ?time to close the book? on the problem of infectious diseases (1969).