Risk Assessment of the Occurrence of Blood Products Infected with Dengue Virus Based on Travelers to the Areas of Dengue Outbreak / 대한수혈학회지

ABSTRACT

Background@#Dengue fever is considered one of the transfusion-transmissible emerging infectious diseases. Dengue fever has been reported every year by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Because a blood donor screening assay to detect the dengue virus (DENV) as an agent of dengue fever is not performed, the risk of transfusion-transmitted DENV infection needs to be assessed. @*Methods@#This study collected the data of DENV infected cases from the Infectious Disease Portal of the KDCA, the data of blood donors and blood components from the Blood Information Management System of the Korean Red Cross, and the data of travelers to major dengue outbreak countries from the Korean Tourism Organization.All data were from 2016 to 2018. A risk assessment was performed using European Up-Front Risk Assessment Tool (EUFRAT). @*Results@#The risk of DENV-infected red cells and platelet concentrate was higher than that of plasma and apheresis platelet. Nevertheless, the risk of the DENV infected blood component was shown to be less than one case per year for all kinds of blood components. @*Conclusion@#All the DENV infected cases in Korea were overseas travelers. Therefore, the risk of transfusiontransmissible DENV infection is very low. On the other hand, continuous observation and monitoring are required because Aedes albopictus as a vector of DENV is found in Korea, and the increase in reported cases may lead to domestic infections.