Malaria N° 2 - Subject N° 9

MALARIA AND TRANSFUSION : A STUDY OF THE DONORS OF THE BLOOD BANK OF THE HOSPITAL OF BOBO-DIOULASSO (BURKINA FASO)
T.R. Guiguemdé, M.A. Sanou, J.B. Ouédraogo, N. Coulibaly, A.R. Gbary & S.O. Coulibaly

SUMMARY
One of the fundamental principles of blood transfusion is to avoid the transmission of pathogenic agents. In Burkina Faso, as in most African countries, blood is not screened for malaria parasites before transfusion. In order to assess the likely importance of transfusion transmitted malaria, we studied the malaria infestation of blood donors from the blood bank of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso (West Africa), from July 1991 to March 1992.
The study concerned 521 donors who gave 584 samples. The age of the donors varied between 15 and 68 years with a majority from 15 to 34 years of age (88.7 %). The donors were essentially male (95.6 %), and the two main professional categories were the factory workers (41.6 %) and school pupils (32.2 %).
Malaria parasites were detected from blood packs and counted in a thick smear. Of the total of 584 packs, 82 (14 %) were infected by Plasmodium falciparum. All the donors were asymptomatic.
The parasite density ranged from 12 to 12 800 parasites µl-1. All the parasite densities greater than 1 000 parasites µl-1 were observed in subjects under 35 years old.
Most of the donors who were positive for P. falciparum had low parasite densities (12 to 499 parasites µl-1). The months of the rainy season (August to October) had the highest percentage of infected donors.
Recipients of blood infected by malaria parasites who have immunodepression due to a surgical operation can develop a severe and complicated malaria. We recommand a systematic suppressive cure with an antimalarial drug in African countries where the lack of resources does not allow systematic blood examination before transfusion.