RESUMO
Since October 2013, French Polynesia has experienced the largest documented outbreak of Zika virus (ZIKAV) infection. To prevent transmission of ZIKAV by blood transfusion, specific nucleic acid testing of blood donors was implemented. From November 2013 to February 2014: 42 (3%) of 1,505 blood donors, although asymptomatic at the time of blood donation, were found positive for ZIKAV by PCR. Our results serve to alert blood safety authorities about the risk of post-transfusion Zika fever.
Assuntos
Doadores de Sangue , Patógenos Transmitidos pelo Sangue/isolamento & purificação , RNA Viral/sangue , Reação Transfusional , Infecção por Zika virus/transmissão , Zika virus/isolamento & purificação , Surtos de Doenças/prevenção & controle , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Polinésia/epidemiologia , Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase em Tempo Real , Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase Via Transcriptase Reversa , Zika virus/genética , Infecção por Zika virus/diagnóstico , Infecção por Zika virus/epidemiologia , Infecção por Zika virus/virologiaRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Several successive arbovirus outbreaks have affected French Polynesia (FP) in the recent past years due to different dengue serotypes (DENV) present for several decades, Zika (ZIKV) (2013-2014) and chikungunya (CHIKV) (2014-2015) viruses with a potential impact on blood safety and blood supply due to the geographical isolation of these islands. This study reports an assessment of the impact of these outbreaks on blood products supply and infectious safety in FP and discuss the effectiveness of implemented preventive measures. METHODS: To ensure the infectious safety of blood products during outbreaks, several measures have successively been introduced as the selection of donors suspected of infection, the nucleic acid testing (NAT) and the pathogen reduction of platelets and plasmas. RESULTS: The donor deferral rate increased by 6% between 2012 and 2014 without changes in the number of collected donations. NAT excluded five blood donations reactive for DENV RNA, 42 for ZIKV and 34 for CHIKV. As Zika screening could not been implemented before the third month of the outbreak, 36 blood products from ZIKV-infected donors were transfused to 26 recipients. However, no transfusion-transmitted arbovirus has been reported. CONCLUSION: The last past arboviruses outbreaks did not have a significant impact on blood supply in FP. The measures introduced to prevent arbovirus transmission by transfusion were able to maintain infectious safety for all blood products without impairing self-sufficiency.