Vol. 568 No. 1
516 Ms Harkin asked the Minister for Health and Children if funding can be made available soon to acquire medical technology for the Irish Blood Transfusion Service to test blood of potential donors who have worked as aid workers, missionaries or UN peacekeepers in tropical malarial countries, especially Africa. [15350/03]
I am advised by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service – IBTS – that people returning to Ireland from parts of the world where malaria is endemic are deferred from donation for a period of six months. This is because the malarial parasite can be transmitted by blood over this period, even by asymptomatic donors and people who have taken the recommended courses of prophylactic drugs. Such an approach to malarial exposure is in line with current best practice in the developed world, and with draft EU requirements for blood donation procedures. Malaria transmitted by blood transfusion has caused fatalities in other European countries.
While blood tests do exist that detect either antibodies to malaria or the parasite itself in the blood of asymptomatic people who are harbouring the disease, the IBTS advises that these tests have not yet been shown to be safer than deferring donors for a period of six months. If and when they are, the IBTS will consider introducing them for such donors.
