Bacterial contamination of blood products for transfusion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: prevalence, risk analysis, prevention

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest need of safe blood transfusion in the world, but only 40% of this demand is covered by blood donations. Regarding transfusion-transmitted infections, big efforts are made for the reduction of viruses and malaria, but few attention has been given to bacterial contamination of blood products. In sub-Saharan Africa studies have documented bacterial contamination in 2.1% to 17.5% of collected blood products. Bacterial contamination of blood products is cited as an underestimated cause of transfusion reactions and has been put forward as priority research by WHO and experts in transfusion medicine. Bacteria contaminating blood products can originate from the donor’s bloodstream, the donor’s skin or the environment. Even skin and environmental bacteria may constitute a serious risk for bacteremia. Low-tech/lowcost preventive measures target risk factors along the blood processing chain. Alternatively, pathogen inactivation technologies are approved for applications on plasma and platelets but validations for red blood cell products (the main blood product in sub-Saharan Africa) are still pending. Therefore I plan to study the prevalence of bacterial contamination of blood products in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and identify bacterial species involved. Secondly I will select and evaluate low-tech as well as high-tech intervention methods for prevention or inactivation of bacterial contamination of blood products in sub-Saharan Africa.

Trefwoorden:B780-tropische-geneeskunde