An assessment of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in US blood donors and recipients: No detectable HEV RNA in 1939 donors tested and no evidence for HEV transmission to 362 prospectively followed recipients.

Authors

Chenyu Xu, George Washington University
Richard Y. Wang, George Washington University
Cathy A. Schechterly, George Washington University
Shengxiang Ge, George Washington University
James W. Shih, George Washington University
Ning-Shao Xia, George Washington University
Naomi L. Luban, George Washington UniversityFollow
Harvey J. Alter, George Washington University

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

10-7-2013

Journal

Transfusion

Volume

Volume 10, Part 2

Inclusive Pages

2505-2511

Keywords

Blood Donors--statistics & numerical data; Blood Transfusion--statistics & numrical data; Hepatitis E--epidemiology; Hepatitis E--transmission; Hepatitis E Virus--isolation & purification; RNA, Viral--blood

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection has become relevant to blood transfusion practice because isolated cases of blood transmission have been reported and because HEV has been found to cause chronic infection and severe liver disease in immunocompromised patients.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS:

We tested for immunoglobulin (Ig)G and IgM antibodies to the HEV and for HEV RNA in 1939 unselected volunteer US blood donors. Subsequently, we tested the same variables in pre- and serial posttransfusion samples from 362 prospectively followed blood recipients to assess transfusion risk.

RESULTS:

IgG anti-HEV seroprevalence in the total 1939 donations was 18.8%: 916 of these donations were made in 2006 at which time the seroprevalence was 21.8% and the remaining 1023 donations were in 2012 when the seroprevalence had decreased to 16.0% (p < 0.01). A significant (p < 0.001) stepwise increase in anti-HEV seroprevalence was seen with increasing age. Eight of 1939 donations (0.4%) tested anti-HEV IgM positive; no donation was HEV RNA positive. Two recipients had an apparent anti-HEV seroconversion, but temporal relationships and linked donor testing showed that these were not transfusion-transmitted HEV infections.

CONCLUSION:

No transfusion-transmitted HEV infections were observed in 362 prospectively followed blood recipients despite an anti-HEV seroprevalence among donations exceeding 16%.

Comments

Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Creative Commons License

This work is free of known copyright restrictions.

APA Citation

Xu, C., Wang, R.Y., Schechterly, C.A., Ge, S., Shih, J.W., Xia, N.S., Luban, N.L., Alter, H.J. (2013). An assessment of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in US blood donors and recipients: no detectable HEV RNA in 1939 donors tested and no evidence for HEV transmission to 362 prospectively followed recipients. Transfusion, 10(pt. 2), 2505-2511.

Peer Reviewed

1

Open Access

1