Blood transfusions in the early years of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa

W.H. Schneider and E. Drucker

American Journal of Public Health, 2006, vol. 96, issue 6, 984-994

Abstract: Blood transfusions transmit HIV more effectively than other means, yet there has been little examination of their role in the origins and early course of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. We review historical data in archives, government reports, and medical literature from African and European sources documenting the introduction, establishment, use, and growth of blood transfusions in sub-Saharan Africa. These data allow estimation of the geographic diffusion and growth of blood transfusions between 1940 and 1990. By 1955, 19 African colonies and countries reported transfusion programs-with national rates of 718 to 1372 per 100 000 by 1964, and urban rates similar to those in developed countries. We estimated 1 million transfusions per year in sub-Saharan Africa by 1970 and 2 million per year by the 1980s, indicating that transfusions were widely used throughout sub-Saharan Africa during the crucial period of 1950-1970, when all epidemic strains of HIV first emerged in this region.

Date: 2006
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2004.061630_3

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2004.061630

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