Low risk of SARS-CoV-2 in blood transfusion
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
PLOS ONE
Abstract
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to remain a global challenge. There is
emerging evidence of SARS-CoV-2 virus found in the blood of patients from China and
some developed countries. However, there is inadequate data reported in Ghana and other
parts of Africa, where blood transfusion service heavily relies on voluntary and replacement
blood donors. This study aimed to investigate whether plasma of infected individuals could
pose significant transfusion transmitted risk of COVID-19 in Ghanaian populations.
Methods
This cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted at the Kumasi Centre for Collabora tive
Research into Tropical Medicine (KCCR), KNUST, Ghana. Study subjects comprised
contacts of COVID-19 individuals, those with classical symptoms of COVID-19 and
individu als who had recovered based on the new Ghana discharge criteria. Whole
blood, sputum or deep coughed saliva samples were collected and transported to
KCCR for SARS-CoV-2 testing. Viral nucleic acid was extracted from sputum/
nasopharyngeal samples using Da An Gene column based kit and from plasma using
LBP nucleic acid extraction kit. Real-Time PCR was performed specifically targeting the
ORF1ab and Nucleocapsid (N) genomic regions of the virus.
Results
A total of 97 individuals were recruited into the study, with more than half being males (58;
59.7%). The mean age of all subjects was 33 years (SD = 7.7) with minimum being 22 yearS
Description
This article is published by Plos One and is also available at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249069
Keywords
Citation
Owusu M, Sylverken AA, El-Duah P, Ayisi Boateng NK, Yeboah R, Adu E, et al. (2021) Low risk of SARS-CoV-2 in blood transfusion. PLoS ONE 16(4): e0249069