Detection of Usutu virus infection in a healthy blood donor from south-west Germany, 2012

L Allering; H Jöst; P Emmerich; S Günther; E Lattwein; M Schmidt; E Seifried; V Sambri; K Hourfar; J Schmidt-Chanasit

doi:10.2807/ese.17.50.20341-en

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Detection of Usutu virus infection in a healthy blood donor from south-west Germany, 2012
L Allering¹ , H Jöst¹ , P Emmerich¹ , S Günther¹ , E Lattwein² , M Schmidt³ , E Seifried³ , V Sambri⁴ , K Hourfar^3,5 , J Schmidt-Chanasit^1,5
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Affiliations: ¹ Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, WHO Collaborating Centre for Arbovirus and Haemorrhagic Fever Reference and Research, Hamburg, Germany ² EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG, Lübeck, Germany ³ German Red Cross Blood Service Baden-Württemberg-Hesse, Frankfurt, Germany ⁴ Microbiology Unit, Regional Reference Centre for Microbiological Emergencies, Bologna, Italy ⁵ The authors contributed equally to this study

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J Schmidt-Chanasit
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Citation style for this article: Allering L, Jöst H, Emmerich P, Günther S, Lattwein E, Schmidt M, Seifried E, Sambri V, Hourfar K, Schmidt-Chanasit J. Detection of Usutu virus infection in a healthy blood donor from south-west Germany, 2012. Euro Surveill. 2012;17(50):pii=20341. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.17.50.20341-en Received: 03 Dec 2012

Abstract

From September 2011 until November 2012, 31 serum samples from German patients with clinically suspected acute Usutu virus (USUV) infections were tested for USUV-specific antibodies. All samples tested negative. In addition, 4,200 serum samples from healthy blood donors from south-west Germany were collected in January 2012 and also analysed for the presence of specific antibodies. One sample tested positive for USUV-IgG and -IgM. Thus, the seroprevalence of USUV antibodies in healthy blood donors from south-west Germany was low in January 2012.