Measures to prevent transfusion-associated protozoal infections in non-endemic countries

Abstract

To understand the risk of protozoa transmission by blood is critical as: (i) the world has become globalized with extensive travel, and increased immigration; (ii) blood-borne protozoa is common in inter-Tropical areas; (iii) protozoa develop biological means to escape hosts' immune systems, together with complicated detection, surveillance, and biological testing; and (iv) life threatening-parasites are inadequately controlled by treatment or prevention. This question is relevant in France, with it's non-continental territories, such as French Guiana, located in the Amazon Basin, which is endemic for various Plasmodium ssp. responsible for malaria, and for Trypanosoma cruzi, which is responsible for Chagas disease. In France, specific questioning of blood donors is haphazard despite the increase in population migration over the last three decades: specific questioning must be emphasized and 'at-risk' donors should be identified and subsequently excluded from donation. Donor exclusion alone would only be partially efficient, there is also a need for relevant biological testing of blood donations and in particular for T. cruzi through the CE-marked test to organize a coherent prevention policy: precise studies would thus define which blood donations are subjected to this additional qualifying test when available.