Leishmaniasis Travel and Residence  Deferral Policies

The American Red Cross Blood Services follows the American Association of Blood Banks’ (AABB) guidelines on donor deferral for travel and residence in the countries with areas with leishmaniasis.  The AABB guidelines are intended to reduce the risk of transmitting leishmaniasis through blood transfusions.

Leishmaniasis is a blood infection caused by a parasite that can be transmitted from a donor to a patient through transfusion.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keep track of the locations with leishmaniasis for international travelers from the United States, and this information is available on their web site at http://www.cdc.gov/travel/yb .    The US Army has reported a number of cutaneous leishmaniasis  among US service members  deployed to Iraq (MMWR, October 24, 2003 / 52(42);  1009-1012) and therefore donors who have traveled or lived in Iraq are deferred from donating blood.

Blood donations are not tested for leishmaniasis. Therefore, it is important that people who may have leishmaniasis or been exposed to leishmaniasis because of living in, or traveling to, a country where leishmaniasis is present not be allowed to donate blood until enough time has passed to be certain that they are not infected with leishmaniasis. This is done by having a waiting period for those who lived in, move from, or traveled to, the locations with leishmaniasis.

The deferral policies associated with travel or residence in Iraq are:

·         Travel to Iraq within the last 12 months—defer for 12 months since departure from Iraq.

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