title: The infectious risks in blood transfusion as of today - A no black and white situation.
abstract: Transfusion has been tainted with the risk of contracting an infection - often severe - and fears about this risk are still prevailing, in sharp contrast with the actual risk in Western countries. Those actual risks are rather immunological, technical (overload) or metabolic. Meanwhile, in developing countries and particularly in Africa, transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs) are still frequent, because of both the scarcity of volunteer blood donors and resources and the high incidence and prevalence of infections. Global safety of blood components has been declared as a goal to be attained everywhere by the World Heath Organization (WHO). However, this challenge is difficult to meet because of several intricate factors, of which the emergence of infectious agents, low income and breaches in sanitation and hygiene. This review aims at encompassing the situation of TTIs in different settings and means that can be deployed to improve the situation where this can possibly be.
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, faculté de médecine de Saint-Étienne, GIMAP 3064, 42023 Saint-Étienne, France; Institut national de la transfusion sanguine, 6, rue Alexandre-Cabanel, 75015 Paris, France. Electronic address: ogarraud@ints.fr.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Garraud
authors.affiliation: Hemorio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luiz Amorim
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Filho
authors.affiliation: Institut national de la transfusion sanguine, 6, rue Alexandre-Cabanel, 75015 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Syria
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Laperche
authors.affiliation: Faculté de médecine et des sciences biomédicales, université de Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tayou-Tagny
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, faculté de médecine de Saint-Étienne, GIMAP 3064, 42023 Saint-Étienne, France; University hospital of de Saint-Étienne, laboratoire des agents infectieux et d'hygiène, 42055 Saint-Étienne, France.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pozzetto
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D065227:Transfusion Reaction