title: Identification and characterization of persistent human erythrovirus infection in blood donor samples.
abstract: The presence of human erythrovirus DNA in 2,440 blood donations from the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana, Malawi, and South Africa) was screened. Sensitive qualitative and real-time quantitative PCR assays revealed a higher prevalence of persistent infection with the simultaneous presence of immunoglobulin G (IgG) and viral DNA (0.55 to 1.3%) than previously reported. This condition was characterized by a low viral load (median, 558 IU/ml; range, 42 to 135,000 IU/ml), antibody-complexed virus, free specific IgG, and potentially infectious free virus. Human erythrovirus genotype 1 (formerly parvovirus B19) was prevalent in the United Kingdom, Malawi, and South Africa. In contrast, only human erythrovirus genotype 3 (erythrovirus variant V9) was prevalent in Ghana. Genotype 3 had considerable genetic diversity, clustering in two probable subtypes. Genotype 1-based antibody assays failed to detect 38.5% of Ghanaian samples containing antibodies to genotype 3 virus but did not fail to detect cases of persistent infection. This study indicates a potential African origin of genotype 3 human erythrovirus and considerable shortcomings in the tools currently used to diagnose erythrovirus infection.
authors.affiliation: National Blood Service, Cambridge Blood Centre, Long Road, Cambridge CB2 2PT, United Kingdom. dc241@cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Candotti
authors.forename: Nermin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Etiz
authors.forename: Armen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parsyan
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Allain
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D001782:Blood Donors; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D019218:Erythrovirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010322:Parvoviridae Infections / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D004279:DNA, Viral