Blood Transfusion Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Blood Transfusion, including details on blood donation, blood types, leukemia.

Transfusion-transmitted malaria: current donor selection guidelines are not sufficient.

Kitchen A, Mijovic A, Hewitt P

English National Blood Service, UK. alan.kitchen@nbs.nhs.uk

A case of transfusion-transmitted malaria was identified in a 50-year-old male patient with sickle cell disease. The donor was Ghanaian, but had migrated to the UK some years previously and had not left the UK for 8 years. The donor met all of the extant donor selection guidelines [1] and a donation was consequently collected. However, on subsequent investigation of the case, the donor was found to be parasitaemic and have high titre malarial antibodies. As a result of this case, changes to the United Kingdom donor selection guidelines have been proposed. These changes will prevent any such further transmissions.

Published 24 March 2005 in Vox Sang, 88(3): 200-1.
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