high prevalence of parvovirus b19 igg antibody among hemophilia patients in center for special diseases, shiraz, iran

human parvovirus b19, the causative agent of fifth disease in childhood, is non-enveloped dna virus and resistant to many physicochemical agents. b19 is a potential risk to hemophiliac patients receiving blood products. to determine the prevalence of the corresponding antibody in patients with hemophilia a or b or von will brand’s disease (vwbd), we tested 180 hemophilia patients aged 1-45 years for anti b19 igg. this work was descriptive, cross-sectional study. the results were compared with those of 400 age-matched controls, male blood donors and male children (18-45 and 3-17 years of age, respectively). the overall prevalence of b19 igg in the hemophilia patients was 74% (133/180), and in the controls 56.5% (226/400, p<0.001). the significant difference in prevalence of b19 igg between hemophiliacs and healthy persons demonstrated that there was a high risk of transmission of parvovirus b19 through plasma- derived clotting products. these observations demonstrate that parvovirus b19 is frequently transmitted in blood products. existing virus-inactivating methods do not prevent transmission.