Seroprevalence of Epstein-Barr virus and cytomegalovirus infections in Presidente Figueiredo, Amazonas, Brazil

Prevalence of transfusion-transmitted infections in hospitalized patients before transfusion and volunteer blood donors in Zhejiang Province, China

OBJECTIVES

To assess the need for screening of transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs) in blood products, we assessed TTI seroprevalence in blood donors and hospitalized patients.

METHODS

We collected 2760 serum samples from three regions of Hangzhou, Ningbo and Huzhou from April 2021 to March 2022, and they tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), Hepatitis C (HCV), Treponema pallidum (TP), Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Hepatitis E virus (HEV) and Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1/2 (HTLV-1/2) antibody levels.

RESULTS

Screening test results showed that the positive rates for HBsAg, anti-HCV and anti-TP were 3.01 %, 0.39 % and 0.18 %, respectively. The positive rates for CMV IgM and CMV IgG were 0.76 % and 96.96 %, while the positive rates for EB VCA-IgM and EB EA-IgG were 1.88 % and 10.47 %; those for HEV IgM and HEV IgG were 1.16 % and 26.05 %, while the HTLV-1/2 antibody positive rate was 0.04 %. The positive rates for CMV IgG, EB EA-IgG and HEV IgG in hospitalized patients before transfusion were higher than in volunteer blood donors, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The overall co-infection rate was 0.29 %. The positive rates for EB VCA-IgM in the males were significantly higher than in females, and EB VCA-IgM and HEV IgG prevalence varied significantly by age.

CONCLUSION

Our data demonstrate the risk of TTI exposure and TTI transmission in the Zhejiang population, which poses a threat to blood safety. It is hoped that expansion of pathogen categories (CMV, EBV, HEV and HTLV-1/2) and blood screening programs will contribute to the future adoption of scientific blood transfusion methods.

Seroprevalence of Epstein-Barr virus infection in children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Zhejiang, China

AIM

We aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection in children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

All children admitted to the Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang University from January 2019 to December 2021 with suspected EBV-associated disease and EBV antibodies were detected by a two-step indirect method of chemiluminescence technology. A total of 44,943 children were enrolled in this study. The seroprevalence of EBV infections was compared from January 2019 to December 2021.

RESULTS

The total seropositive rate of EBV infections was 61.02% between January 2019 and December 2021, and the seropositive trend decreased year by year. The total number of seropositive EBV infections in 2020 was reduced by 30% compared to that in 2019. In particular, nearly 30% and 50% reductions in the number of acute EBV infections and EBV reactivations or late primary infections from 2019 to 2020 were found, respectively. The number of acute EBV infections in children aged 1-3 years and EBV reactivation or late primary infection in children aged 6-9 years in 2020 sharply dropped by approximately 40% and 64% compared to that in 2019.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study further demonstrated that the prevention and control measures for COVID-19 in China had a certain effect on containing acute EBV infections and EBV reactivations or late primary infections.