Abstract

 Background and Objectives

 Infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) is very common. Contamiated persons can transmit the virus to normal recipients through blood donation. While infection with CMV in normal immunocompetent persons usually has no adverse outcomes, transmission of the virus to immunocompromised patients can lead to serious morbidity and mortality. So we designed a study to determine the prevalence rate of anti-CMV antibodies among the blood donors of Urmia Blood Transfusion Center.

 Materials and Methods

 In this cross-sectional descriptive study, the prevalence rate of anti-CMV antibodies (IgM, IgG) was estimated by ELISA method in serum samples obtained from 180 healthy blood donors in various age and sex groups of Urmia.

 Results

 According to the findings, all (100%) of the sera studied were positive for IgG irrespective of the age and sex of donors while only five persons (2.8%) had anti-CMV IgM at detectable levels. There were four males and one female, all living at urban regions with the age range of 20 to 50 years.

 Conclusions

 The high rate of positive test results among blood donors indicated that nearly all of donated blood units have an infectious nature at least for immunocompromised patients. The findings of this study clearly show that it is time for all blood donations to be screened for CMV infectivity at least for immunocompromised group of recipients such as the patients with malignant diseases receiving chemotherapy and recipients of allograft organs. This group of patients should at least benefit from protective measures in blood transfusion including the use of leukocyte filters which is at the time being limited to thalassemic patients in our country.

 Key words : Cytomegalovirus, Blood transfusion, Blood donors, Iran