ArticleVox sanguinis2026
Life, death and rapid diagnostic tests in the world's blood deserts.
Article in Vox sanguinis, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Life, death and rapid diagnostic tests in the world's blood deserts.Vox sanguinis · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesMillions of people globally reside in 'blood deserts', where systemic barriers prevent timely access to safe blood components. Lodwar County Referral Hospital (LCRH) in Turkana County, Kenya, is a district hospital lacking on-site testing capacity for transfusion-transmissible infection (TTI) screening, resulting in critical transfusion delays. We present three cases in which validated rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) could have facilitated point-of-care donor screening and transfusion in life-threatening situations. PATIENTS AND
methodsWe present three cases of critically ill patients-two teenagers and an elderly woman-who presented to LCRH over the course of a single week.
resultsEach patient required emergent transfusions but experienced fatal delays along various points in the transfusion continuum due to the inability to rapidly screen available donor or banked blood for TTIs.
conclusionThese cases illustrate how delays in TTI screening can directly contribute to preventable mortality, even when blood is otherwise available. They highlight the urgent need for standardized, contextually appropriate emergency transfusion protocols that formally incorporate RDT use. Our experience suggests that such protocols may reduce transfusion delays, improve access to lifesaving blood and serve as a scalable model for improving blood access in rural and remote 'blood deserts' around the world.
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