Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Feb 5;17(2):224.
doi: 10.3390/v17020224.

Detecting Arboviruses Through Screening Asymptomatic Blood Donors in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil During a Dengue Outbreak

Marisa de Oliveira Ribeiro  1 , Mônica Barcellos Arruda  1 , Alexandre Rodrigues Calazans  1 , Alexandre Vicente Frederico  1 , Anielly Ferreira Brito  1 , Beatriz Vasconcello de Souza Barreto  1 , Élida Millena de Vasconcelos Brandão  1 , Hamilton Athayde  1 , Kátia Cristina Silva Nascimento  1 , Luiz Paulo de Brito Oliveira Souza  1 , Pedro Henrique Cardoso  1 , Priscilla Lopes da Silva Guimarães  1 , Vanessa Duarte da Costa  1 , Carlos Alexandre da Costa Silva  2 , Alexandra Martins Soares  2 , Josiane Iole  2 , Guilherme Louzada  2 , Luiz Amorim Filho  2 , Patrícia Alvarez  1
Affiliations

Detecting Arboviruses Through Screening Asymptomatic Blood Donors in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil During a Dengue Outbreak

Marisa de Oliveira Ribeiro et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) dengue (DENV), chikungunya (CHIK), and Zika (ZIKV) have been responsible for a high number of outbreaks worldwide. However, their screening in blood donors is not mandatory, and asymptomatic cases might act as an important cause of virus transmission via transfusion. A study was conducted to assess the presence of DENV (serotypes 1-4), ZIKV, and CHIKV in pooled samples (pool size: six) from asymptomatic blood donors. A total of 9463 plasma pools, corresponding to 56,778 blood donations from asymptomatic blood donors who attended donor sessions at HEMORIO and other blood centers in Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo, was submitted to automated nucleic-acid extraction and PCR amplification using ZC D-Tipagem molecular assay (Bio-Manguinhos). In general, a pool prevalence of 1% (95/9463) and a donor prevalence of 0.17% (95/56,778) were observed. January and February 2024 had a total of 62 positive pools out of 95 (65.3%). Targets DENV-1 and -2 had a higher prevalence in the studied months-early summer-with 24 and 28 positive pools, respectively. ZC D-Tipagem molecular assay was able to detect the best-known arboviruses circulating in asymptomatic blood donors; this study suggested that ZIKV, CHIK, and DENV are circulating in asymptomatic blood donors before blood donations and can be transmitted to blood transfusion recipients.

Keywords: arboviruses; blood donors; hemocenter.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of detected targets throughout January and February 2024.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Mayer S.V., Tesh R.B., Vasilakis N. The emergence of arthropod-borne viral diseases: A global prospective on dengue, chikungunya and zika fevers. Acta Trop. 2017;166:155–163. doi: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2016.11.020. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sharma R., Costa Santos L., da Silva R.A., Gonçalves C.V., de Melo Calado S., Santos D.P., de Andrade de Melo J.P., de Cássia Pontello Rampazzo R., Requião L., Krieger M.A., et al. Surveillance of donated blood during the 2016 arbovirus outbreak in Brazil. J. Med. Virol. 2018;90:1406–1410. doi: 10.1002/jmv.25193. - DOI - PubMed
    1. WHO Vector-Borne Diseases. 2020. [(accessed on 10 September 2024)]. Available online: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/vector-borne-diseases.
    1. Gubler D.J. The global emergence/resurgence of arboviral diseases as public health problems. Arch. Med. Res. 2002;33:330–342. doi: 10.1016/S0188-4409(02)00378-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Weaver S.C. Urbanization and geographic expansion of zoonotic arboviral diseases: Mechanisms and potential strategies for prevention. Trends Microbiol. 2013;21:360–363. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2013.03.003. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources