Dengue virus serological markers among potential blood donors: an evidence of asymptomatic dengue virus transmission in Cameroon

Abstract

Introduction the risk of dengue virus or its antibodies which can be transmitted through blood transfusion by asymptomatic individuals infected, has been a major concern all over the world. Dengue is an endemic disease in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Cameroon. The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency of dengue virus (DENV) infection among potential blood donors at Yaounde Jamot Hospital. Methods serum samples were collected from 310 potential adult blood donors aged 18-57 years, who signed a written informed consent and completed the questionnaire between March 2019 and August 2019. This serum is used to screen for the presence of serological markers of DENV infection (NS1, IgM and IgG) using immunochromatographic tests (Zhuhai Encode Medical Engineering Co., Ltd, China). IgM/IgG positive samples were confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Results the overall prevalence was 24.8% among potential blood donors were subdivided as follows: 4.5% (14/310), 12.3% (38/310) and 6.1% (19/310) showed mono-positivity to DENV-NS1 antigen, anti-DENV IgM and anti-DENV IgG antibodies respectively. 1.9% (6/310) of potential blood donors showed dual positivity to anti-DENV IgM antibodies and anti-DENV IgG antibodies. The presence of DENV-NS1 antigen show asymptomatic viremia of dengue at the time of donation, while the presence of IgG antibodies reflects the high endemicity of dengue disease in the city of Yaoundé. Conclusion these findings demonstrate the high level of risk of the DENV transmission among potential blood donors to needy recipients, underscoring the importance of establishing dengue fever blood screening in different services and blood collection units in Cameroon to improve safety transfusion and control the dissemination of the DENV.

Prospective case-control study of dengue infection in some malaria and non-malaria patients consulting at the Bertoua Regional Hospital, East-Cameroon

“…The remainder (38.34%) were cases of secondary infection. This result is similar to that reported by who found a seroprevalence of 4.5%, 12.3% and 6.1% for the NS1 antigen, IgM, and IgG antibodies respectively [17]. This also suggests that the serological profile is different between the two populations.…”

“…However, the coinfection rate found in this study (14%) is close of that of Yousseu et al (13%) reported in Douala (Cameroon) [14], lower than that of Mustapha et al (44.2%) reported in Abuja (Nigeria) [30] in HIV-patients and higher than that recently documented in febrile patients from the Adamawa region (8.95%) in Cameroon by our research group [18]. Similarly, the dengue mono-infection rate found here is higher than that described by Tchuandom et al (24.8%) in blood donors recruited at the Jamot Hospital in Yaounde [17]. These discrepancies might be explained by the fact that both infections are highly endemic in the East region.…”

“…In Cameroon, several studies have reported the presence of dengue infection in urban and rural areas [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Different dengue serotypes were also characterized in especially DENV-1, DENV-2, and DENV-3 serotypes in asymptomatic [17] and febrile patients [9,14]. Denguemalaria coinfection was firstly documented in children attending healths centers in Yaoundé [15].…”

High seroprevalence of anti-DENV IgM in blood donors in an early outbreak in the Federal District of Brazil, 2019

“…A lower prevalence was also observed worldwide, such as in China (0.4-5.0 %), Taiwan (0.2 %), Saudi Arabia (5.5%), India (6.0%), Singapore (2.8 %) Mexico (2.0 %) and Australia (0.2 %) [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. In contrast, a higher prevalence was observed in Cameroon (22.9 %) [19]. These differences may be a result of implementation of the control measures to curb DENV outbreaks, the intensity of the outbreak (in an epidemic year), the lower circulation of the virus (non-epidemic year), the circulation of different serotypes, and differences in the sensibility of the screening methods for anti-DENV IgM.…”

An update on the mosquito fauna and mosquito-borne diseases distribution in Cameroon

“…Arboviral diseases constitute a growing international public health threat, especially due to the absence of functional vaccines for some of the diseases, therapeutic drugs, and effective vector control programmes [ 79 ]. In Cameroon, different arboviruses have been reported in febrile and non-febrile patients in different localities in the country [ 21 , 80 – 82 ]. The most prevalent include dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, zika, and Rift Valley fever viruses [ 19 , 21 , 30 , 83 – 91 ].…”