Is seroprevalence of anti-IGM CMV among blood donors relevant in India?
BACKGROUND
Infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) is more common in developing nations and the people belonging to the lower socioeconomic section of the society. The immunosuppressed population for whom CMV-seronegative blood products are requested is increasing due to advances in medical care.


OBJECTIVE
To study the prevalence of CMV antibodies among the different sexes and age groups in healthy blood donors.


METHODS
A retrospective study was done on 5600 serum samples stored frozen in a repository for CMV antibodies using the ELISA technique.


RESULTS
Five thousand three hundred and fifty (95.5%) were male and 250 (4.5%) were female. Four cases (0.071%) out of 5600 samples were positive for anti-IgM CMV with 95% Confidence Interval (95% C.I) of 0.02 - 0.17.


CONCLUSIONS
In a developing country like India, screening for IgM antibody on a routine basis may not be feasible, given the likely positive yield to be low and the cost being high. It is recommended that in a tertiary care hospital, blood units to be transfused to neonates, organ transplant recipients, those suffering from malignancies and other immunocompromised patients should be screened for anti-IgM CMV or preventive strategies like universal leucodepletion to be implemented to decrease the transmission of CMV in these groups of patients.
Kumar
Harsh
H
Department of Transfusion Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune - 411 040, India.
Gupta
P K
PK
Kumar
Satish
S
Sarkar
R S
RS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D001782:Blood Donors; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood*; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007075:Immunoglobulin M