The prevalence of SEN virus infection in blood donors in Iran.

BACKGROUND SEN virus is a blood-borne, single-stranded, nonenveloped DNA virus. Two of its strains (D and H), appear to be associated with non-A-to-E hepatitis more frequently than the others, although it is not clear whether this observation has any significance. The prevalence of SEN virus in otherwise healthy individuals, including blood donors, differs markedly by geographic region. In this study, an investigation to evaluate the prevalence of SEN virus strains among blood donors in Tehran was carried out. METHODS Sera of 260 blood donors who were negative for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and third-generation hepatitis C virus antibody (anti-HCV) were tested for SEN virus-D and -H DNA. DNA was extracted from plasma of 260 blood donors and amplified by semi- nested polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS SEN virus-D viremia was detected in four (1.5%) of the 260 blood donors (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.0 - 3%). SEN virus-H viremia was detected in 47 (18.08%) of the 260 blood donors (95% CI, 13.4 - 22.8%). Both SEN virus-D and SEN virus-H viremia were detected in nine (3.4%) of the 260 blood donors (95% CI, 1.2 - 5.7%). SEN virus-D or SEN virus-H viremia was identified in 60 (23.08%) of the 260 blood donors (95% CI, 18.08 - 28.08%). CONCLUSION Out of the 260 blood donors, 60 (23%) were infected by SEN virus-D/H. The prevalence of SEN virus-H is more than SEN virus-D. Our results also showed that the high prevalence of SEN virus in healthy blood donors with no history of blood transfusion may attribute to the transmission modes other than parenteral transmission.