Seroprevelance of cytomegalovirus in healthy blood donors in Kafr El Sheikh General Hospital

Background and aim Cytomegalovirus (CMV) transmission to seronegative patients with inadequate immunity might result in significant consequences. The goal of the study was to determine the prevalence of CMV antibodies in healthy blood donors at the Kafr El Sheikh General Hospital. Patients and methods This research enrolled 100patients with the same inclusion and exclusion criteria, in age ranging between 18 and 60 years, with confirmed seronegativity for hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus, and HIV. All patients were asked to complete history taking, full clinical examination, laboratory assessment, and peripheral blood samples. The blood samples were taken from each individual to test for CMV immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies. Another sample was taken from IgM-positive cases in order to do PCR testing for CMV DNA. Results All cases among the study group were showing a positive CMV IgG with a high rate up to (100%). Consequently, in the general hospital in Kafr El Sheikh, healthy blood donors had a significant prevalence of CMV IgG. While, there were three (3%) patients of them had positive CMV IgM and 97 (97%) patients of them had Negative CMV IgM, this indicates a rarity of CMV IgM in healthy blood donors at Kafr El Sheikh General Hospital. Conclusion The high seroprevelance of CMV is a barrier to developing blood products of seronegative CMV in blood banks; nonetheless, we found that concentrated screening of a specific group of blood donors would be the best way to achieve this goal.