Seroprevalence of cytomegalovirus infection in Mauritian volunteer blood donors.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the seroprevalence of CMV antibodies in the Mauritian volunteer blood donor population and to establish a panel of CMV-seronegative blood donors. STUDY SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Five hundred and eighty four apparently healthy blood donors were screened for evidence of CMV infection by the complement fixation test. There were 551 males and 33 females with age ranging from 18 to 60 years. RESULTS: Complement-fixing antibodies were found in 93.5% of the blood donors. The prevalence was 93.1% in males and 100% in females. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate that seroprevalence of CMV in the local blood donors is very high making CMV-seronegative blood very scarce. Therefore leucocyte-depleted blood should be used as an alternative to CMV-seronegative blood during transfusions.

Detection of cytomegalovirus in urine of hearing-impaired and mentally retarded children by PCR and cell culture.

This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) excretion in urine among 30 deaf children and 91 mentally retarded children by cell culture and PCR. As a control, urine samples from 121 children without hearing disability or mental retardation were also tested. The study revealed that 15 of 30 (50%) deaf children and 16 of 91 (17.6%) mentally retarded children were excreting CMV in their urine. Among the control group we observed that only 2 of the 121 (1.8%) children were CMV excretors. As CMV excretion in urine is generally considered to indicate a congenital infection, it is very likely that congenital CMV is highly incriminated in mental retardation and deafness among children in Mauritius.