title: Seroprevalence of human parvovirus B19 in healthy blood donors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Human parvovirus B19 is an emerging transfusion transmitted infection. Although parvovirus B19 infection is connected with severe complications in some recipients, donor screening is not yet mandatory. To reduce the risk of contamination, plasma-pool screening and exclusion of highly viraemic donations are recommended. In this study the prevalence of parvovirus B19 in healthy blood donors was detected by ELISA.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 1633 samples were screened for IgM and IgG antibodies against parvovirus B19 by ELISA. The initial 540 samples were screened for both IgM and IgG class antibodies and remaining 1093 samples were screened for only IgM class antibodies by ELISA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Net prevalence of IgM antibodies to human parvovirus B19 in our study was 7.53% and prevalence of IgG antibodies was 27.96%. Dual positivity (IgG and IgM) was 2.40%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The seroprevalence of human parvovirus B19 among blood donor population in our study is high, and poses an adverse transfusion risk especially in high-risk group of patients who have no detectable antibodies to B19. Studies with large sample size are needed to validate these results.
authors.affiliation: Classified Specialist (Transfusion Medicine), INHS Asvini, Mumbai, India.
authors.forename: Satish
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Senior Advisor (Pathology & Virology), CH (NC), Udhampur, India.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Commanding Officer, Military Hospital Paharpur, Gaya, India.
authors.forename: Sourav
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sen
authors.affiliation: Commandant, 151 Base Hospital, C/o 99 APO, India.
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Dept of Transfusion Medicine, AFMC, Pune-40, India.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Philip
authors.affiliation: Director AFMS (Medical Research), New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Atul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kotwal
authors.affiliation: Resident, Dept of Transfusion Medicine, AFMC, Pune-40, India.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Sumathi
keywords: Blood donors; Parvovirus B19; Seroprevalence