Cytomegalovirus Studies on Blood Donors in North‐East Scotland and a Review of UK Data

Abstract

The epidemiology of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection as assessed by CMV antibody testing varies significantly in different parts of the world and also in different regions of a country. A study was therefore carried out to assess the prevalence of CMV antibody in our blood donors, looking in particular at different subgroups of donors as divided by age, sex and social class, to see how we could maximise the yield of CMV-negative blood from our testing. It was shown that patterns of CMV infection in the North East of Scotland followed well-established norms. Data from other Regional Transfusion Centres within the UK were also collected for comparison.

Continuous cytomegalovirus seroconversion in a large group of healthy blood donors

“…One key parameter for preventing transfusion‐transmitted CMV is to determine the frequency of primary CMV infection among seronegative blood donors [13]. Only a few studies have been published concerning this, describing a seroconversion rate of ≈ 1% per year [14,15].…”

Systematic Evaluation of Different Nucleic Acid Amplification Assays for Cytomegalovirus Detection: Feasibility of Blood Donor Screening

“…The annual seroconversion rate among German blood donors was determined to be 1% (3,5,10). The prevalence of primary CMV infections among blood donors was determined to be between 0.2 and 1.2% (3,8,9). Taking these findings into account, the detection of CMV DNA in only 0.03% of 54,451 donations in this study is at least 1 order of magnitude lower than the expected rate, which is most likely due to the large pool size of 96 samples.…”

“…Primary CMV infections in blood donors occur in all age groups, with prevalence rates between 0.2 and 1.2% (3,6,8,9). The disease presentation is mostly asymptomatic, frequently with a prolonged course (10, 11).…”

Riboflavin and ultraviolet light for pathogen reduction of murine cytomegalovirus in blood products

“…The virus is ubiquitous around the world with approximately 40% to 100% of adults infected . Studies from several years ago in both UK blood donors and US health care workers estimated yearly seroconversion rates in the seronegative population of 1% to 3% . A recent study of Japanese blood donors identified a similar annual seroconversion rate, which has held constant for the past 15 years .…”