Zika-related microcephaly in experimental models

A preliminary survey of Zika virus infection by nucleic acid test in the volunteer blood donor samples in Shenzhen China

Although Zika virus (ZIKV) infection is mainly transmitted through mosquito bite, it can also be transmitted through blood transfusion. More than 500 000 cases of ZIKV infection were reported in the Americas from 2015 to 2016. Up till now, over 10 cases of imported ZIKV infection have been reported due to frequent international exchanges in the Shenzhen city of Guangdong Province, China. Unfortunately, there were no data on ZIKV infection in Chinese blood donors because it has not been included in routine screening for volunteer blood donors. As such, we performed a preliminary survey of the prevalence of ZIKV infection among volunteer blood donors in Shenzhen, China, to assess the potential risk of ZIKV infection through transfusion. A total of 9626 blood donor samples were collected and ZIKA RNA was detected by transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) nucleic acid amplification method with the Panther nucleic acid automatic analysis system of Grifols, Spain, including Procleix ZIKV Assay reagent. All the experiments in this study were conducted in accordance with the standard operating procedure of the blood center. Of the 9626 donor blood samples tested, none of these samples was Zika RNA reactive. There was no positive case from ZIKV RNA screening in this preliminary survey. There was no ZIKV presence in blood donors in Shenzhen, China, from this preliminary survey. The potential risk of ZIKV infection by transfusion is low in Shenzhen at this moment. Therefore, there is no need to add ZIKV nucleic acid test as a routine screening for blood donors.