Safety of Donated Blood of Malaria Patients Before Diagnosis

Seo, Dong Hee; Jang, Chung Hun; Kwon, So Yong; Oh, Young Chul; Kim, Dong Jip

Abstract

BACKGROUND: As the number of malaria patients has increased in Korea, the number of blood donors who are diagnosed as malaria after donation has also increased. And during 1997~2001, ten cases of transfusion-transmitted malaria were reported. We investigated the transfusion safety of blood that was donated by malaria patients before diagnosis.
METHODS
For a total of 2,552 malaria patients diagnosed in 2001, blood donation history of past one year before diagnosis was inquired at the beginning of 2002. Then we inquired informations about recipients of the hospitals through the regional Red Cross blood centers. we also inquired development of malaria after transfusion for the recipients in the August of 2002. Malaria antibody test results of donated blood were also analyzed to determine the status of immunity of donors in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Gangwon area.
RESULTS
Among 2,552 malaria patients, 162 (6.3%) patients had donated within one year before diagnosis and they were all man. Their blood was processed into 292 units of blood components and supplied to 90 hospitals, where it was transfused 286 patients. Among these 286 patients, no one was diagnosed as malaria until time of database retrieving. Among 162 malaria patient, enzyme immunoassay malaria antibody test results of 107 (66.0%) patients were available, and all were negative.
CONCLUSION
No one has developed malaria among the recipients transfused with blood that was donated by malaria patients before diagnosis. Therefore, the infectivity of blood donated before malaria diagnosis is thought to be very low. As antibody to malaria was not produced in some of malaria patients before diagnosis, this finding could be useful for the study of immunology of malaria infection.