Seroprevalence of parvovirus B19 in blood donors: the risks and challenges of blood transfusion in Zambia in the era of HIV/AIDS at the Kitwe Central Hospital, blood bank

Abstract

BackgroundHuman Parvovirus (B19V) is a small, single-stranded, non-enveloped DNA virus which is pathogenic to humans causing a wide array of clinical complications which include erythema infectiosum, aplastic crisis and hydrops foetalis. It is generally harmless in healthy individuals but may be life threatening in immunocompromised individuals such as patients with sickle cell disease, cancer, HIV and pregnant women. It has been shown to be transmissible by blood transfusion but donor screening for the virus is not yet mandatory in most sub-Saharan African countries including Zambia.Materials and methodsThis was a cross-sectional study undertaken at the Kitwe Central Hospital, blood bank and Tropical Diseases Research Centre at Ndola Central Hospital. A total of 192 blood samples were screened for Ig M antibodies against parvovirus B19 by ELISA.ObjectivesThe general objective of the study was to determine the seroprevalence of parvovirus B19 infections among healthy blood donors at the Kitwe Central Hospital blood bank. Specific Objectives were to detect parvovirus B19 Ig M antibodies in donor blood using serology and to analyse the age and sex distribution of parvovirus among blood donors.ResultsThe prevalence of parvovirus B19 Ig M in this study was 15.6%. The majority of the positive cases were in the age group 15–22 years (17.8%) but there was no statistical significance between occurrence of parvovirus and age ( p value=0.703). Prevalence in males was higher than in females that is 16.4% and 13.8%, respectively. The relationship between gender and parvovirus B19 occurrence was however not significant either (p value=0.516)ConclusionThis study showed a 15.6% prevalence rate of acute Parvovirus B19 infections in blood donors at the Kitwe Central Hospital, blood bank. Studies with larger sample sizes are needed to validate these results.

Prevalence and Phylogenetic Analysis of Parvovirus (B19V) among Blood Donors with Different Nationalities Residing in Qatar

“…Since they are the major donors, our estimates involve a limitation in the representativeness of the findings and may not fully reflect that of all Qatar, which may bias the comparison between the two groups. Similar observations regarding this gender bias were previously reported in India, Nigeria, Zambia, and Japan [ 60 , 77 , 112 , 113 ]. Furthermore, we have not considered seasonality and periodicity in the model, since the infection peaks predominantly during the months of late winter and early spring [ 70 ].…”

A Meta-Analysis on the Seroprevalence of Parvovirus B19 among Patients with Sickle Cell Disease

“…Full texts of these 50 studies were screened, and 32 studies of which were subsequently omitted because of low quality or lack of data to estimate the outcomes of interest. These excluded studies were 14 review articles [1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11–13, 18, 24–28], ten studies had small number of patients with SCD [29–38], a study included patients with several types of chronic hemolytic anemia [39], four studies done among patients with TAC [40–43], a study analyzed all the acute admissions of patients with SCD to a district general hospital [44], a study included all patients attending some hospitals [45], and a study done among healthy blood donors [46].…”

A Methodology for Porcine Circovirus 2 (PCV-2) Quantification Based on Gold Nanoparticles

“…PCV-2 is a non-enveloped DNA virus belonging to the family Circoviridae. Non-enveloped DNA viruses belonging to the Parvoviridae and Adenoviridae families were tested to verify the binding specificity of the antibody used [35,36]. Another virus tested was the PCV-1, belonging to the same family of PCV-2 presenting similar structural proteins, which can cause false positive diagnoses in conventional tests ( Figure 6B).…”