People returning from the Paris Olympics can no longer donate blood – rts.ch

Anyone who has traveled to the French capital since August 15 during the Olympic and Paralympic Games must wait 30 days before being able to donate blood. The decision is due to concerns about viruses circulating at the events, which attract tourists and athletes from around the world.

Indeed, a wave of contaminations with chikungunya, a disease transmitted by the tiger mosquito, was identified in Paris and in certain southern regions in mid-August. Alerted, the Swiss health authorities have taken measures regarding blood donation.

Blood-borne viruses

“These viruses are dangerous in the sense that they are blood-borne viruses,” explains doctor Nathalie Rufer, head of the interregional transfusion centre in Epalinges, in the canton of Vaud. This characteristic has direct consequences on blood donation, where it is necessary to “be able to identify people when they have been in risk areas”. In this case, exclusion from blood donation is necessary.

The doctor points out that a threshold was reached on August 15, when it was declared that “the Île-de-France Paris area is an area with a new ‘epidemic’ of chikungunya”, “information relayed throughout Europe”.

The blood transfusion center’s prescriptions take into account the existence of this “epidemic cluster” linked to the large flows of people during the Games. Donors are then prohibited from donating blood for four weeks, in order to guarantee the quality of the blood and protect vulnerable patients.

To find out if you are affected and if the situation will continue, it is recommended that you go to the website of the various regional organizations that manage blood donation collections to complete a travel check. This form indicates, depending on your location and travel dates, whether you are authorized to donate blood immediately, or wait four weeks.

Foued Boukari/itg