Prevalence of Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika Viruses in Blood Donors in the State of Pará, Northern Brazil: 2018-2020

Medicina (Kaunas). 2022 Dec 30;59(1):79. doi: 10.3390/medicina59010079.

Abstract

Arboviruses have been reported over the years as constant threats to blood transfusion recipients, given the high occurrence of asymptomatic cases and the fact that the presence of viremia precedes the onset of symptoms, making it possible that infected blood from donors act as a source of dissemination. This work aims to identify the prevalence of dengue virus (DENV), Zika virus (ZIKV) and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection in blood donors during epidemic and non-epidemic periods; classify the donor as symptomatic or asymptomatic; and verify the need to include DENV, CHIKV and ZIKV in the nucleic acid test (NAT) platform in northern Brazil. We investigated 36,133 thousand donations in two years of collection in Northern Brazil. One donor was positive for DENV and one for CHIKV (0.002% prevalence). As the prevalence for arboviruses was low in this study, it would not justify the individual screening of samples from donors in a blood bank. Thus, DENV- and CHIKV-positive samples were simulated in different amounts of sample pools, and both were safely detected by molecular biology even in a pool of 14 samples, which would meet the need to include these three viruses in the routine of blood centers in endemic countries such as Brazil.

Keywords: Chikungunya virus; Zika virus; blood donors; dengue virus; transfusion.

MeSH terms

  • Blood Donors
  • Brazil / epidemiology
  • Chikungunya Fever* / diagnosis
  • Chikungunya Fever* / epidemiology
  • Chikungunya virus*
  • Dengue Virus*
  • Dengue* / diagnosis
  • Dengue* / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Prevalence
  • Zika Virus Infection* / diagnosis
  • Zika Virus Infection* / epidemiology
  • Zika Virus*

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Brazilian funding agencies National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq; process 426916/2016-6 to L.M.L and process 301350/2019-1 to R.M.R.B.). Fundação Amazônia Paraense de Amparo à Pesquisa (FAPESPA; to L.N.L) as well as Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação (PROPESP) of Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA) for payment of the publication fees.