Blood Donations From Malaria-Endemic Areas Like India Are Not Accepted In Malta
After Asif Ali, an Indian-born man, was not allowed to donate his blood at a Bulubel blood drive, on account of his nationality, the National Blood Transfusion Centre reached out to explain that in Malta, no person who was “previously residing in India” could donate blood.
“First of all I would like to point out that under no circumstances can we ever divulge the reason behind a blood donor being deferred to third parties,” Denise Radmilli, Medical Officer at the NBTC told Lovin Malta.
“All information is personal and treated as strictly confidential.”
“However, allow me to explain why any person who was previously residing in India may not donate blood.”
“Malaria is a transfusion-transmissible disease which does not exist in Malta, and therefore, the majority of the Maltese people are malaria-naive,” continued Radmilli.
“This means that they have no immunity against the disease. Should a malaria-naive person acquire the disease, it is likely to be serious.”
“When malaria is transmitted through a blood transfusion, it is usually fatal, as the organism by-passes certain immune responses which are activated in the skin when it is acquired through the bite of an infected mosquito.”
In essence, anyone who has lived in India – or any other malaria-endemic areas – is not permitted to donate blood in Malta.
This is understandable, and the importance of ensuring that donated blood will not endanger those receiving it should never be discounted, particularly because blood transfusions are often required by people who are already in a medically vulnerable state.
“In order to minimise the risk of transmitting malaria to a blood recipient, any person who was born in or has resided for more than six months in a malaria-endemic area, such as India, can not donate blood in Malta.”
Even if a person who has lived in a malaria-endemic area is not aware of having been infected with malaria, their blood may not necessarily be safe for donation to malaria-naive recipients – as they may still unknowingly be carriers.
“The probability of such a person being a carrier for malaria is approximately 10%. Being a carrier means that a person would have been exposed to the organism, has developed partial immunity against it and thus never develops disease himself, but can pass it on through blood.”
All of this information is extremely important, and as such, should be clearly communicated to avoid misunderstandings such as that which occurred last week – which left Ali feeling disrespected and demeaned, believing that he had been discriminated against on racial grounds.
Given that Malta’s demographics are rapidly changing, and that a large proportion of new residents are from India, Pakistan and other parts of South-Asia, it may be helpful to update NBTS information so that others do not have to endure a similar feeling.
Lovin Malta asked Ali if he felt that this message had come across clearly.
“They just mentioned pandemic, pandemic. That’s it. They didn’t communicate anything clearly. Except saying that I can’t donate blood there.”
“Till now, I still didn’t receive a call, message or email from them about this.”
Without questioning the medical reasoning behind this particular decision – and delving into specific details which cannot be disclosed to anyone but the patient – Ali alleged that when he asked for a further explanation, he was laughed at.
Furthermore, he did not feel that he has received a clear explanation.
Given that organisations in Malta have repeatedly shown themselves to be acting prejudicially towards non-Maltese, non-European and non-white-skinned people, is it fair to say that Ali jumped to an unreasonable conclusion by believing that was being discriminated against?
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