RESUMO
Transfusion-transmitted malaria due to asymptomatic Plasmodium infections is a challenge for blood banks. There is a lack of data on the prevalence of asymptomatic infected blood donors and the incidence of transfusion-transmitted malaria in low endemicity areas worldwide. We estimated the frequency of blood donors harbouring Plasmodium in an area in which asymptomatic infections have been reported. Material and methods. To estimate the frequency of blood donors harbouring Plasmodium weused microscopy and molecular tools. Serological tests were applied to measure the exposure of candidates to Plasmodium antigens. Venous blood was collected from 91 candidates attending the"Pró-Sangue" Blood Centre Foundation in São Paulo, who lived in the municipality of Juquitiba, São Paulo, Brazil, where sporadic autochthonous cases of malaria have been described. Blood samples were used for parasitological, molecular and serological studies...
Assuntos
Humanos , Malária/sangue , Malária/transmissão , Portador Sadio , Transfusão de SangueRESUMO
Efforts have been made to establish sensitive diagnostic tools for malaria screening in blood banks in order to detect malaria asymptomatic carriers. Microscopy, the malaria referencetest in Brazil, is time consuming and its sensitivity depends on microscopist experience. Although molecular tools are available, some aspects need to be considered for large-scale screening: accuracy and robustness for detecting low parasitemia, afford ability for application to large number of samples and flexibility to perform on individual or pooled samples...