Update of the exclusion list of countries at risk of malaria transmission for donations of human body products

In its opinion of October 1, 2019, the HCSP maintained six countries on a temporary exclusion list of people who had stayed there due to a possible residual risk of malaria: Azerbaijan, Brunei Darussalam, Iraq, El Salvador, Tajikistan and Turkey. , as well as the Yunnan region of China. In a context of blood product stocks at a worrying level, the High Council for Public Health (HCSP) has updated this list. Since 2019:

• El Salvador and China have achieved certification of malaria elimination by the World Health Organization since 2021;
• Egypt reports persistent circulation of Plasmodium vivax in the Al-Fayoum oasis;
• Azerbaijan, Brunei Darussalam, Iraq and Tajikistan applied to WHO in 2021 for certification of malaria elimination, which is under review;
• Turkey has been the subject of particular attention because it is the cause of a non-negligible number of postponements of blood and graft donors: reassuring data on the absence of indigenous or imported cases and on the robustness of the monitoring system led the HCSP to remove this country from the exclusion list.

In total, the HCSP recommends that the following countries or regions be included on the exclusion list: Azerbaijan, Brunei Darussalam, Iraq, Tajikistan and Al-Fayoum oasis in Egypt (the whole country is excluded for organ donors, tissues other than blood or cells).