Test detects blood bag infected with malaria in RJ – 07/24/2023 – Mônica Bergamo

A test developed by Fiocruz’s Institute of Technology in Immunobiologicals (Bio-Manguinhos) detected, last week, a blood bag infected with malaria at the public blood center in Rio de Janeiro. According to the institution, the discovery may have prevented up to four people from being contaminated in a possible transfusion.

The identification was made through the Kit NAT Plus test, which began to be implemented in the SUS (Sistema Único de Saúde) in December 2022 and has already analyzed more than 500 thousand blood bags. In addition to malaria, the technology developed by Fiocruz also detects the HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses.

Since last year, the test has already identified the presence of malaria in 12 blood bags and prevented them from being used in transfusions. Six of them were in the North, two in the Northeast and four in the Southeast — in the latter case, all in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in a region that is not considered endemic.

According to specialist in molecular diagnosis Patricia Alvarez, from the Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz institute, the fact that the NAT Plus Kit also identifies the malaria pathogen is a gain for Brazilian regions where the disease is not common.

“Often, the disease is in that region without anyone knowing about its circulation”, says Alvarez. All infected bags detected in Rio de Janeiro, for example, contained blood donated by asymptomatic people.

“Sometimes it happens that you have an infection that is not detected by thick smear test, RT or anamnesis [coleta do histórico do paciente]and molecular diagnostics [que é feito pelo teste da Fiocruz] adds to all these actions so that the receiver [da transfusão] have the necessary security”, he completes.

According to Fiocruz, the implementation of the test in the 14 public blood centers in Brazil should be completed by 2024.

In May of this year, the Ministry of Health launched a national plan for the elimination of malaria, which aims to eliminate malaria cases in the country by 2035.

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