(P-BB-23) Clinical and Epidemiological Characteristics of Arbovirus Infections in Blood Donors

Background/Case Studies: Arboviruses such as dengue (DENV), Zika (ZIKV), West Nile (WNV), and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) are primarily transmitted to humans via vectors of the Aedes genus. However, transfusion-associated transmission has been documented for DENV, ZIKV, and WNV. Although the prevalence of arbovirus infections in blood donors has been studied in some countries, little is known about the characteristics of arbovirus-infected blood donors. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the clinical and epidemiological aspects of arbovirus infections in blood donors in Colombia.

Study

Design/Methods: As a part of a surveillance program of the prevalence and incidence of DENV, ZIKV, and CHIKV RNAemia in blood donors at six blood centers in Colombia during 2019-2022, the donors who tested positive for viral RNA were contacted to obtain information about their sociodemographic, clinical, and epidemiological characteristics. Results are presented as proportions, and comparisons between endemic and non-endemic regions were made using the Chi-square or Fisher's exact test (IBM® SPSS v26).

Results/Findings: The response rate was 83/172 (48%); the results are presented in Table 1. In the non-endemic region, 67% of infected donors had no travel history to endemic areas. A total of 22% of endemic-region cases were coinfections. In total, 57% of the infected donors were asymptomatic. The most frequent symptoms were headache, general malaise, and arthralgia. No significant differences were observed between endemic and non-endemic areas or between viruses.

Conclusions: A high proportion of cases was asymptomatic, and among the symptomatic, the manifestations were mild and non-specific. This might limit the effectiveness of the donor selection criteria currently used to prevent transfusion transmission of arboviruses. Hemovigilance studies in transfusion recipients are suggested to estimate the frequency and impact of possible arbovirus transmission through transfusion.

Importance of research: The impact of arboviral infections on transfusion safety is cause for concern, but little is known about their clinical and epidemiological features in blood donors. In a series of 83 blood donors from non-endemic and endemic regions of Colombia between 2019 and 2022, positive for dengue, Zika, or Chikungunya viruses RNA, 57% were asymptomatic; and among the symptomatic, the manifestations were mild and non-specific, with 31% with headache, 13% with general malaise, and 10% with arthralgia.