Policy review examines historical blood collection bans in French Guiana, indicating that improved pathogen screening warrants updating precautionary transfusion restrictions.
France has suspended blood collection in French Guiana, a French overseas territory in South America since 2005 because of concerns regarding transfusion-transmitted infections, particularly Trypanosoma cruzi, HIV, malaria, and other tropical pathogens. At that time, the precautionary principle was understandable. Diagnostic tools were less sensitive, the epidemiology of several infections remained poorly characterized, and the decision followed the HIV-contaminated blood crisis that profoundly shaped French transfusion policy.
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Epelboin et al. (2026) studied this question.
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