West Nile virus lineage 2 infection in a blood donor from Vienna, Austria, August 2014

J Clin Virol. 2015 Mar:64:16-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2015.01.003. Epub 2015 Jan 5.

Abstract

Eastern Austria is neighbouring regions with ongoing West Nile virus (WNV) transmissions. Three human WNV infections had been diagnosed during the past decade in Austria. The Austrian Red Cross Blood Service (ARC-BS) started a first voluntary screening for WNV in blood donors from Eastern Austria by Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) in June 2014. This is also the most extensive WNV surveillance programme in humans in Austria so far. In August 2014, one autochthonous WNV infection was detected in a blood donor from Vienna. By now, one in 67,800 whole blood donations was found to be positive for WNV RNA.

Keywords: Austria; Blood donor; Full-length genome; Phylogeny; West Nile virus.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Austria / epidemiology
  • Blood Donors*
  • Female
  • Genome, Viral
  • Humans
  • Mass Screening
  • Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques
  • Phylogeny
  • RNA, Viral / blood
  • West Nile Fever / diagnosis*
  • West Nile Fever / epidemiology
  • West Nile Fever / virology*
  • West Nile virus / isolation & purification*

Substances

  • RNA, Viral