Abstract
BackgroundTransmission of dengue virus (DENV) through blood transfusion has been documented and hence screening for DENV during blood donation has been recently recommended by the American Association of Blood Banks and Centres of Disease Control and Prevention. DENV is endemic in the Western province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and serotypes 1, 2 and 3, but not 4, have been detected. However, little is known regarding the rates of DENV during blood donation in the kingdom. The aim of this study was therefore to measure the prevalence of dengue virus and its serotypes in eligible Saudi blood donors in the endemic Western region of KSA.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study and serum samples were collected from 910 eligible Saudi male blood donors. DENV IgM and IgG antibodies were measured serologically by ELISA while viral serotypes were detected by a single step IVD CE certified multiplex RT-PCR kit.ResultsThe overall prevalence was 39 and 5.5% for IgG+ and IgM+, respectively. There were 12 (1.3%) with exclusively IgM+, 317 (34.8%) exclusively IgG+ and 38 (4.2%) with dual IgM+/IgG+ donors. The overall prevalence was 3.2% (n = 29) and 2.3% (n = 21) for primary and secondary infections. PCR was positive in 5.5% (n = 50) and, DENV-2 (n = 24; 48%) was the most frequent serotype and was significantly higher than DENV-1 (20%; P = 0.02) and DENV-3 (2%; P = 0.1 × 10−5) but not DENV-4 (30%; P = 0.2). There was no significant difference between both DENV-4 and DENV-1 (P = 0.4). The combination of the PCR and serology findings showed that 22 (2.4%) and 28 (3.1%) donors had primary and secondary viremic infections, respectively.ConclusionsThe detected rates of DENV by PCR suggest a potential high risk of viral transmission by blood transfusion. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report the detection of DENV-4 serotype in Saudi Arabia. More studies are required to measure the precise prevalence of DENV serotypes and their potential transmission rate during blood donation in the kingdom.
Highlights
Transmission of dengue virus (DENV) through blood transfusion has been documented and screening for DENV during blood donation has been recently recommended by the American Association of Blood Banks and Centres of Disease Control and Prevention
Dengue virus was positive by PCR in 5.5% (n = 50) of the 910 study participants and the most frequent serotype was DENV-2 (n = 24) and it was significantly higher than DENV-1 (n = 10; P = 0.02) and DENV-3 (n = 1; P = 0.1 × 10−5) but not DENV-4 (n = 15)
Discussion the prevalence of dengue virus and its serotypes was measured by a single step multiplex Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) together with IgM and IgG antibodies in serum samples for the diagnosis of asymptomatic acute dengue infection in 910 eligible Saudi blood donors
Summary
Transmission of dengue virus (DENV) through blood transfusion has been documented and screening for DENV during blood donation has been recently recommended by the American Association of Blood Banks and Centres of Disease Control and Prevention. DENV is endemic in the Western province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and serotypes 1, 2 and 3, but not 4, have been detected. The aim of this study was to measure the prevalence of dengue virus and its serotypes in eligible Saudi blood donors in the endemic Western region of KSA. The first outbreak of dengue infection in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) occurred in Jeddah city in the Western province during 1994 [3, 4]. The laboratory diagnosis of acute dengue is currently performed either serologically by capturing the viral non-structural protein (NS1) or by detecting the virus RNA by RT-PCR [2, 14]. NS1-based diagnosis, unlike RT-PCR, lacks the advantage of viral serotyping [14]
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