The growing demand for donated whole blood and blood products to save lives has both health benefits and health risks for blood recipients at the same time. Dengue virus, a re-emerging viral disease poses a threat to blood safety, and it has spread to over 128 countries in the world. Several studies have documented transfusion-transmitted (TT) dengue, with the first cases being reported in China in 2002 and Singapore in 2008. To understand the magnitude and broader picture of the dengue virus and blood safety, we conducted a mini-review of published literature from the Scopus database. The review focused on the number of publications related to the dengue virus among blood donors. Using keywords ‘Dengue virus’ AND ‘Blood safety’, ‘ Dengue virus’ AND ‘Blood donors’ and ‘Emerging infectious diseases’ AND “Blood safety” were used to extract data from the Scopus database which was downloaded as a CSV Excel file covering a period 2004 to 2021. This was followed by a data-cleaning exercise and a descriptive analysis to generate the frequency of the number of publications. Most studies, as can be seen in the review, were concentrated in tropical regions of the world. Globally, South America and the Asian regions had the largest number of publications; while at the country level, Brazil and India had the highest number. More research output was witnessed during the years 2014 and 2018. The regions that experienced more frequent outbreaks of the disease, with the exception Africa, published most of the research work. Therefore, much more research work is needed to protect the safety of blood donors in Africa.

The provision of blood products to save a life is a noble undertaking for any organization tasked with the duty. In addition to saving millions of lives, blood products pose health risks associated with adverse events. Much has been done to mitigate these challenges, but emerging new infectious diseases pose a public health challenge to both the safety of blood and its availability. The dengue virus an arbovirus is one such virus that is endemic in tropical and subtropical countries. The data emerging from the published papers show that dengue could be a major threat to blood safety and availability in the future. To address these threats, a collaborative approach through one health system is the only avenue to provide a last solution. One health has been implemented as a strategy to mitigate zoonotic diseases and its results are very impressive. This piece of work is a fraction of our larger project that aims to address threats to the dengue virus and blood safety in Kenya and the rest of Africa. In conclusion, adopting one health in the fight against the dengue virus in blood safety will be the best approach to ensure a safer supply of blood products.