A pilot study on screening of blood donors for emerging transfusion transmissible Leptospirosis infection in an endemic area.

Emerginginfectious diseases pose threats to the general human population, includingrecipients of blood transfusions. The risk of transmission of infection byblood transfusion results from collecting of blood from an infected donor whilehe is asymptomatic and the pathogen is present in his blood. Themicrobiological safety of the blood supply is continuously improving. The majorfocus has been HIV, hepatitis viruses and bacterial contamination. In fact,there are many infectious agents that are known, or that have properties thatwould predict the ability, to be transmissible by blood transfusion. A recent publicationlisted some 68 infectious agents with this characteristic, but for whichinterventions have not been implemented. [1] Leptospirosis is among suchinfections and is endemic in Karnataka and Kerala and we have outbreaks of Leptospirosisalmost every year. The present study is planned to assess the need forimplementation of newer donor screening strategies for detection ofleptospirosis infection at our place. A prospective pilot studyenrolling 500 healthy voluntary blood donors will be done. The donor samplewill be collected after blood donation from the blood bag for screening oftransfusion transmissible infections (HIV, HBV, HCV, Malaria and Syphilis). Inaddition to these mandatory screening tests we will be screening the sample forLeptospirosis infection by detection of leptospira specific Ig M antibodies byELISA method. If a donor is found to be reactive, a confirmatory test would beperformed by rapid kits and donor notification and the components prepared willbe discarded