According to a recent study, more than a quarter of the blood supply in Africa is contaminated.
It was during a conference on malaria held in Dakar that the experts were keen to sound the alarm, thus alerting about the ravages caused by this disease, but also the few resources that are put in place to counter it.
A problem of world order.
Even worse, the means put in place are often corrosive. As a result, out of 24,000 blood donors in Nigeria, nearly a quarter provided parasitized blood, which in particular promotes the proliferation of malaria.
Since transfusions mainly concern pregnant women and children, a category of the population with weaker immune defences, the disease does not encounter any obstacle.
“In the absence of greater vigilance,” these children may be “more exposed to the parasites that cause malaria,” said Dr. Selali Fiamanya (Global Network for Monitoring Antimalarial Drug Resistance – Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network(WWARN)) in charge of the study on the blood supply in Africa and more particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
A particularly advanced study in Malado also revealed that 29.5% of the blood samples were contaminated.
“Our results give even more weight to WHO’s recommendations that anyone receiving a blood transfusion must undergo preventive malaria treatment,” said Dr. Selali Fiamanya, urging the world, society to address this problem and find an adequate and sustainable solution.