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Abstract: BACKGROUND: Dengue is a vector-borne disease caused by four different serotypes (dengue virus DENV 1–4) of the DENV. These viruses are transmitted to humans primarily through the bite of infected female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Apart from vector transmission of DENV, blood transfusion could be of significance in transmitting the virus from a blood donor to a healthy individual. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of dengue immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies and NS1 antigen among asymptomatic healthy blood donors attending the blood center of a tertiary care hospital in Southern Odisha. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted by the Viral Research Diagnostic Laboratory and Blood Center of Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati Medical College, Berhampur, Odisha. The samples were collected from the asymptomatic blood donors as per the guidelines. All collected serum samples were screened for dengue NS1 antigen and dengue IgM antibody using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay techniques. RESULTS: A total of 468 blood samples were collected, of which 466 (99.57%) study participants were men and only 2 (0.42%) study participants were female. It was reported that only 3 (0.64%) donors were positive for anti-dengue IgM antibody, whereas all the samples were negative for dengue NS1 antigen. CONCLUSION: Testing of circulating DENV in healthy blood donors during blood donation is essential since transmission of dengue from blood transfusion is possible. All tested blood samples should be seronegative for anti-dengue IgM antibody and dengue NS1 antigen. This will allow ruling out the most probably acute dengue infection during blood transfusion.
Nayak et al. (Tue,) studied this question.