New strategies for the control of infectious and parasitic diseases in blood donors: the impact of pathogen inactivation methods

Abstract Around 70 infectious agents are possible threats for blood safety. The risk for blood recipients is increasing because of new emergent agents like West Nile, Zika and Chikungunya viruses, or parasites such as Plasmodium and Trypanosoma cruzi in non-endemic regions, for instance. Screening programmes of the donors are more and more implemented in several Countries, but these cannot prevent completely infections, especially when they are caused by new agents. Pathogen inactivation (PI) methods might overcome the limits of the screening and different technologies have been set up in the last years. This review aims to describe the most widely used methods focusing on their efficacy as well as on the preservation integrity of blood components.