Publications by authors named "Sydney Puerto-Meredith"
The World Health Organization recommends that all blood donations be screened for transfusion transmissible infections; these data are currently not incorporated into national disease surveillance efforts. We set out to use routinely collected data from blood donors in Blantyre district, Malawi to explore HIV and syphilis prevalence and identify sero-conversions among repeat donors. We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of blood donation data collected by the Malawi Blood Transfusion Service from 2015 to 2021.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Voluntary non-remunerated blood donors (VNRBDs) play a critical role in maintaining blood supply safety, and expanding testing for transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs) is vital for ensuring safe blood products.
- A study analyzed data from over 200,000 Malawian blood donors (mostly young males) from 2015 to 2021, focusing on age, occupation, and TTI screening results for HIV, Hepatitis B and C, and syphilis.
- The overall TTI prevalence was 10.7%, with Hepatitis B showing the highest prevalence, while geographical trends indicated lower rates in the northern region compared to central and southern areas, suggesting targeted resource allocation could enhance blood collection efforts.
Blood and blood products are listed as one of the essential medicines by the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition to inadequate supply, most sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) nations fail to meet their blood needs because many donated blood units are discarded because they are contaminated with transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs). We sought to estimate the prevalence of TTIs, identify the risk factors for TTIs among blood donors, and identify the efforts and interventions that have been made to improve blood safety in Southern African nations, particularly the nations of the South African Development Community (SADC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Poor pregnancy and birth outcomes are common in sub-Saharan Africa and have complex aetiologies. Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), given for intermittent preventive therapy of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp), is one of few existing interventions that improves outcomes of both mother and baby despite widespread SP-resistant malaria. Compelling evidence exists that malaria-independent pathways contribute to this protective effect, but the exact sources of non anti-malarial protection remained unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Plasmodium falciparum malaria dominates throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but the prevalence of Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale spp., and Plasmodium vivax increasingly contribute to infection in countries that control malaria using P. falciparum-specific diagnostic and treatment strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Malaria is a major health issue in Malawi, particularly affecting children ages 2-10, with about 18-19% prevalence of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite.
- A study of 15,125 asymptomatic individuals aged 15-54 showed a higher overall prevalence of 31.1%, with most infections being mild (≤10 parasites/µL).
- Despite the availability of bed nets, many individuals do not use them consistently, indicating a need for improved intervention strategies to address asymptomatic infections in adults, who contribute to ongoing transmission.