The woman is said to have received in Klagenfurt at a hip surgery infected with malaria blood. A sample of donor blood will now be examined.
It was really just a routine operation that a woman in Klagenfurt underwent in the Elisabethinenkrankenhaus. The surgery on the hip may have cost her his life. As the “Kleine Zeitung” reported, the patient is said to have received a contaminated blood bank: After she was released from the hospital, the woman contracted malaria and died despite immediate treatment. Now is determined because of negligent killing under particularly dangerous conditions.
Currently waiting for the results of the autopsy, said Christian Parker, spokesman for the prosecutor Klagenfurt. Whether the blood bank is really to blame for the infection is now being tested in Germany in a special laboratory. Yet it is not clear that the blood bank was really the cause of the disease.
Donor blood is not automatically tested for malaria, so the Red Cross told. Anyone who wants to donate blood in Austria must first complete a questionnaire. Queries are also required abroad. If someone was in malaria areas, the person is only allowed to donate blood after six months.
Malaria – also called tropical fever or malaria – is a fever disease that is triggered by single-celled parasites and transmitted by mosquitoes. Also, a human-to-human infection is possible, such as blood transfusions.
Malaria has various forms and is one of the most dangerous tropical diseases. There are preventive medicines but no one hundred percent protection. There is no vaccine, the treatment of patients should start as early as possible.
According to the WHO, an estimated 216 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide in 2016, with 445,000 deaths, but both numbers are declining. According to Statistik Austria, 82 cases of malaria in Austria were reported in Austria in 2016. These were predominantly people who became infected in other countries.