Prevalence of transfusion-transmitted infections in hospitalized patients before transfusion and volunteer blood donors in Zhejiang Province, China

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the need for screening of transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs) in blood products, we assessed TTI seroprevalence in blood donors and hospitalized patients.

Methods: We collected 2760 serum samples from three regions of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Huzhou from April 2021 to March 2022, and they tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), Hepatitis C (HCV), Treponema pallidum (TP), Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Hepatitis E virus (HEV) and Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1/2 (HTLV-1/2) antibody levels.

Results: Screening test results showed that the positive rates for HBsAg, anti-HCV and anti-TP were 3.01 %, 0.39 % and 0.18 %, respectively. The positive rates for CMV IgM and CMV IgG were 0.76 % and 96.96 %, while the positive rates for EB VCA-IgM and EB EA-IgG were 1.88 % and 10.47 %; those for HEV IgM and HEV IgG were 1.16 % and 26.05 %, while the HTLV-1/2 antibody positive rate was 0.04 %. The positive rates for CMV IgG, EB EA-IgG and HEV IgG in hospitalized patients before transfusion were higher than in volunteer blood donors, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The overall co-infection rate was 0.29 %. The positive rates for EB VCA-IgM in the males were significantly higher than in females, and EB VCA-IgM and HEV IgG prevalence varied significantly by age.

Conclusion: Our data demonstrate the risk of TTI exposure and TTI transmission in the Zhejiang population, which poses a threat to blood safety. It is hoped that expansion of pathogen categories (CMV, EBV, HEV and HTLV-1/2) and blood screening programs will contribute to the future adoption of scientific blood transfusion methods.

Keywords: CMV; EBV; HEV; HTLV-1/2; Transfusion-transmitted infections.