Table 2.

Pathogen, Clinical Manifestation, Available Testing Methods, Country-Specific Donor Prevalence, and Estimated Risk of Transfusion Transmissibility (where available) for Selected Transfusion-Transmissible Bacteria and Protozoa in Africa

Pathogen	Clinical manifestation	Transfusion screening/testing method in use	Prevalence among blood donors	Risk
Bacteria
Conventional bacteria	Bacteremia/septicemia	–
Rickettsia conorii R typhi Coxiella burnetti			Tunisia (9.0% ‡) [89]	Unknown
			Tunisia (3.6%‡) [89]
			Tunisia (26% ‡) † [89]
T pallidum	Syphilis	VDRL/TPHA	DRC (1.1%–3.6% *) [74]
			Cameroon (9.5%) [14]
			Burkina Faso (1.2%) [14]
			Egypt (0.05%) [75]
			Ethiopia (1.3%) [76]
			Ivory Coast (5.85%) [14]
			Mali (4.54%) [14]
			Namibia (0.09%) †
			Tanzania (4.7%) [80]
			Mozambique (0.91% *) [36]
			Mali (0.3%) [77]
			Rwanda (0.6%) [14]
			Niger (18.96%) [14]
Protozoa
P falciparum			Kenya (0.67%–8.63%) [90]
P.vivax P malariae P.ovale	Malaria	Donor history questionnaire; blood smear microscopy	Nigeria (10.2%–20.2%) [57,91]
Nematodes
W bancrofti	Lymphatic filariasis, elephantiasis	–	Unknown	Unknown
O volvulus	Oncocerciasis, river blindness”	–	Unknown
L loa	Loiasis, African eye worm	–	Nigeria (1.3–3.5% ‡) [60,92]
M streptocerca	Dermal-based filariasis	–	Nigeria (0.2% ‡) [60]
M perstans	Body cavity filariasis	–	Nigeria (15.6% ‡) [60]

Abbreviations: VDRL, venereal disease research laboratory test; TPHA, T pallidum hemagglutination assay.

^*Replacement donors.

^†Unpublished correspondence from NAMBTS.

^‡Results from study conducted more than 10 years ago/may be outdated.