Zika virus in asymptomatic blood donors, Martinique: 2016

Pierre Gallian (1, 2) , André Cabie (3, 4) , Pascale Richard (5) , Laure Paturel (5) , Rémi N Charrel (2) , Boris Pastorino (2) , Isabelle Leparc-Goffart (2, 6) , Pierre Tiberghien (7, 1) , Xavier de Lamballerie (2)

1 EFS - Etablissement Français du Sang [La Plaine Saint-Denis]
2 EPV - Emergence des Pathologies Virales
3 Service de Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales [Fort-de-France, Martinique]
4 CIC - Antilles Guyane - Centre d'Investigation Clinique Antilles-Guyane
5 EFS Martinique - Etablissement français du sang [Fort-de-France, Martinique]
6 French National Reference Centre for Arboviruses
7 RIGHT - Interactions hôte-greffon-tumeur, ingénierie cellulaire et génique - UFC (UMR INSERM 1098)

Zika fever is an Aedes-borne disease caused by a flavivirus (Zika virus, ZIKV, genus Flavivirus). During the past years ZIKV spread in Polynesia, South-America and the Caribbean. Most ZIKV infections are asymptomatic or result in mild febrile disease with rash and conjunctivitis. Attention was recently drawn to non-vectored ZIKV transmission, including sexual, probable blood-borne and mother-to-fetus transmission, and to severe forms such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, acute neurological infections and fetal abnormalities (including microcephaly). Many aspects of Zika fever natural history remain unknown, e.g. the proportion of asymptomatic cases and the duration of viremia. Estimating the prevalence of Zika infections is difficult because a large proportion of infected individuals do not seek medical attention and seroprevalence studies are hampered by antigenic cross-reactivity with other flaviviruses, e.g. dengue virus. Here, we present a study of ZIKV infection in blood donors from Martinique island (French West Indies, Caribbean region), with novel epidemiological, biological and clinical information that refine the picture of Zika fever in adults.

Domaines: Santé publique et épidémiologie

Pierre Gallian, André Cabie, Pascale Richard, Laure Paturel, Rémi N Charrel, et al.. Zika virus in asymptomatic blood donors, Martinique: 2016. Blood, 2016, [Epub ahead of print]. ⟨10.1182/blood-2016-09-737981⟩. ⟨inserm-01415646⟩