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Real-time symptomatic case of transfusion-transmitted dengue
José Eduardo Levi1,2, Anna Nishiya1, Alvina Clara Félix2
1Fundação Pró-Sangue, Hemocentro de São Paulo, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Background:
Dengue virus transmission by blood transfusion is a rarely reported event.
Case Report:
During a dengue outbreak in São Paulo city, a regular plateletpheresis donor informed the blood bank of being diagnosed a few days after donation. The recipient was hospitalized and displayed symptoms and laboratory evidence of dengue after transfusion.
Results:
The donor was immunoglobulin (Ig)G, IgM, and polymerase chain reaction nonreactive on the index sample, seroconverting 20 days later. The platelet units were transfused into two patients. One of them developed fever 3 days after transfusion, with high viral load. His pretransfusion sample was negative for IgG, IgM, and dengue RNA, while the second recipient did not show any symptoms nor laboratory evidence of dengue infection.
Conclusions:
This case brings additional evidence that dengue is indeed transmissible by blood transfusion and clinical manifestations, although rare, do occur.
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History
The history of blood transfusion dates back to the 17th century, when early attempts were made in animals. In 1818 James Blundell, a British doctor, performed the first successful human blood transfusion. Later in 1900, Karl...