Real-time symptomatic case of transfusion-transmitted dengue

Abstract

Background: Dengue virus transmission by blood transfusion is a rarely reported event.

Case report: During a dengue outbreak in São Paulo city, a regular plateletpheresis donor informed the blood bank of being diagnosed a few days after donation. The recipient was hospitalized and displayed symptoms and laboratory evidence of dengue after transfusion.

Results: The donor was immunoglobulin (Ig)G, IgM, and polymerase chain reaction nonreactive on the index sample, seroconverting 20 days later. The platelet units were transfused into two patients. One of them developed fever 3 days after transfusion, with high viral load. His pretransfusion sample was negative for IgG, IgM, and dengue RNA, while the second recipient did not show any symptoms nor laboratory evidence of dengue infection.

Conclusions: This case brings additional evidence that dengue is indeed transmissible by blood transfusion and clinical manifestations, although rare, do occur.