Blood donation: 30 days deadline if you are returning from Paris

If you are returning from Paris, you will have to wait 30 days before being able to donate blood in Switzerland. A decision motivated by fears related to viruses that could circulate during major international events, in this case the Olympic and Paralympic Games, reveals RTS.

A wave of infections with chikungunya, a disease transmitted by the tiger mosquito, was identified in the French capital and in some southern regions in mid-August. The Swiss health authorities have therefore taken measures concerning blood donation.

Interviewed by RTS, doctor Nathalie Rufer, head of the interregional transfusion center in Épalinges, in the canton of Vaud, emphasizes that a contamination threshold was reached on August 15. It was declared that “the Île-de-France Paris area is an area with a new “epidemic” of chikungunya.”

“These viruses are dangerous in the sense that they are blood-borne viruses,” explains Nathalie Rufer. Donors who have recently traveled to Paris are therefore prohibited from donating blood for four weeks. To assess your eligibility, you can carry out a “travel check” on the websites of the various regional organizations managing blood donation collections.

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