Blood Culture Bottle Shortage

The U.S. is currently experiencing a shortage of Becton Dickinson BACTEC blood culture media bottles. This shortage has the potential to disrupt patient care by leading to delays in diagnosis, misdiagnosis or other challenges in patients with certain infectious diseases, in addition to impacts on follow-up patient care and antimicrobial stewardship efforts. Related resources for health care providers, labs, facilities and health departments are provided below and will be updated if additional information becomes available.

The Food and Drug Administration Office of Supply Chain Resilience is responsible for managing activities to anticipate and prevent disruptions to the supply chain for medical devices. If you are experiencing a significant shortage of BD BACTEC blood culture bottles, please contact FDA at deviceshortages@fda.hhs.gov. 

Resources 

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  
  • Disruptions in Availability of Becton Dickinson (BD) BACTEC Blood Culture Bottles Blood Culture Bottles (CDC HAN Advisory, July 23, 2024)
  • Blood Culture Contamination: An Overview for Infection Control and Antibiotic Stewardship Programs Working With the Clinical Laboratory
  • Preventing Adult Blood Culture Contamination: A Quality Tool for Clinical Laboratory Professionals
  • Diagnostic Excellence: A New Quality Tool to Prevent Blood Culture Contamination
• Food and Drug Administration
  • Disruptions in Availability of BD BACTEC Blood Culture Media Bottles - Letter to Health Care Providers (July 10, 2024; updated Aug. 15, 2024)
  • Medical Device Shortages List
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
  • Blood Culture Media Bottles Disruptions in Availability   
• Department of Health and Human Services 
  • Statement from Secretary Becerra on Disruptions in Availability of Blood Culture Media Bottles  
• Becton Dickinson
  • BD BACTEC Blood Culture Vial Supply
• American Society for Microbiology
  • Managing Blood Culture Bottle Shortages (endorsed by IDSA and SHEA) 

Additional Resources for Clinical Decision Making

• Institutional Resources
  • Considerations to Reduce Pediatric Blood Cultures (Johns Hopkins Children’s Center)
  • Blood Culture Bottle Shortages Information (Vanderbilt University Medical Center)
  • Mass General Brigham
    • Guidelines for Initial Blood Culture Collection in Adults
    • Guidelines for Initial Blood Culture Collection in Children   
• Journal Articles
  • Every Crisis Is an Opportunity: Advancing Blood Culture Stewardship During a Blood Culture Bottle Shortage (Open Forum Infectious Diseases)  
  • Rapid Implementation of Blood Culture Stewardship: Institutional Response to an Acute National Blood Culture Bottle Shortage (Clinical Infectious Diseases)  
  • Does This Patient Need Blood Cultures? A Scoping Review of Indications for Blood Cultures in Adult Nonneutropenic Inpatients (Clinical Infectious Diseases)
  • Consensus Recommendations for Blood Culture Use in Critically Ill Children Using a Modified Delphi Approach (Pediatric Critical Care Medicine)
  • Evaluation of Expired BD BACTEC Blood Culture Vials (Journal of Clinical Microbiology)