Blood Transfusion Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Blood Transfusion, including details on blood donation, blood types, leukemia.

Persistent B19 infection in immunocompetent individuals: implications for transfusion safety.

Lefrère JJ, Servant-Delmas A, Candotti D, Mariotti M, Thomas I, Brossard Y, Lefrère F, Girot R, Allain JP, Laperche S

Institut National de la Transfusion Sanguine, 6 Rue Alexandre Cabanel, 75015 Paris, France.

Recent reports suggested that parvovirus B19 (B19) might persist in immunocompetent individuals such as blood donors, but only cross-sectional data were available. Serial samples from a cohort of multitransfused patients with hemoglobinopathies and a cross-sectional population of pregnant women were tested for B19 markers. Of 76 red cell recipients, 6 (8%) had persistent viral DNA for 1 to 3 or more years, depending on the sensitivity of the genomic amplification assay. All patients also carried B19-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG). In contrast, 0.8% of 500 pregnant women carried both detectable B19 DNA and specific IgG. These results demonstrate that persistence of low levels of B19 DNA suggested by cross-sectional studies is frequent in multitransfused patients and that the virus may remain detectable several years after infection in nonimmunodeficient individuals.

Published 5 October 2005 in Blood, 106(8): 2890-5.
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