Screening of Blood Donations for Zika Virus Infection - Puerto Rico, April 3-June 11, 2016

Transfusion-transmitted infections have been documented for several arboviruses, including West Nile and dengue viruses. Zika virus, a flavivirus transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that has been identified as a cause of congenital microcephaly and other serious brain defects, became r...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2016, Vol.65 (24), p.627
Main Authors: Kuehnert, Matthew J, Basavaraju, Sridhar V, Moseley, Robin R, Pate, Lisa L, Galel, Susan A, Williamson, Phillip C, Busch, Michael P, Alsina, Jose O, Climent-Peris, Consuelo, Marks, Peter W, Epstein, Jay S, Nakhasi, Hira L, Hobson, J Peyton, Leiby, David A, Akolkar, Pradip N, Petersen, Lyle R, Rivera-Garcia, Brenda
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Acids
Blood & organ donations
Epidemics
Immunoglobulins
Infections
Mosquitoes
Pathogens
Population
West Nile virus
Zika virus
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Transfusion-transmitted infections have been documented for several arboviruses, including West Nile and dengue viruses. Zika virus, a flavivirus transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that has been identified as a cause of congenital microcephaly and other serious brain defects, became recognized as a potential threat to blood safety after reports from a 2013-2014 outbreak in French Polynesia. Blood safety concerns were based on very high infection incidence in the population at large during epidemics, the high percentage of persons with asymptomatic infection, the high proportion of blood donations with evidence of Zika virus nucleic acid upon retrospective testing, and an estimated 7-10-day period of viremia. Although the blood donor population of Puerto Rico is not intended to be statistically representative of the general population, the increasing prevalence of Zika virus nucleic acid among blood donors likely reflects an overall increase in infection incidence in the population at large.
ISSN:0149-2195
1545-861X