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Updated: Mar 17, 2026
Treatment of Platelet Products with Riboflavin and UV Light: Effectiveness Against High Titer Bacterial Contamination
Published on: August 24, 2015
The infectious risks in blood transfusion as of today - A no black and white situation
Olivier Garraud1, Luiz Amorim Filho2, Syria Laperche3
1Université 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.
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.
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