The Investigation of Brucella Seropositivity in Blood Donors

Abstract

Objective: Although brucellosis is controlled in developed countries, it is a public health problem that is seen as endemic in our country. Although most people living in endemic areas do not have clinical signs of infection, the serological indicators of brucellosis may be positive. The illness can be transmitted to healthy people from asymptomatic patients through blood transfusion. In this study, it is aimed to investigate Brucella seropositivity in healthy blood donors in our region. Methods: The study included 4018 healthy blood donors who donated to the Blood Center of Van Yuzuncu Y.l University Medical Faculty between May 2016 and June 2017. Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT) was applied to all blood serums and samples with agglutination were confirmed by Standard Tube Agglutination (STA) test. Serum samples with low titer positive (1/40 and 1/80 titer) who were considered.1/160 titer positive as a result of the STA test were studied with Coombs test..1/160 titer positive in Coombs test. Results: In the study, 107 (2.7%) of the total 4018 serum samples were positive for RBPT screening. As a result of the STA test applied to positive blood samples, 13 were suspect positive and 13 (0.3%) were positive. Of the 13 serum samples that gave suspected positivity with the STA test, 3 of them were positive with Coombs test. Therefore, in our study, seropositivity rate among all samples was 2.7% (n=107) with RBPT, 0.3% (n=13) with STA test and 0.4% (n=16) by Coombs test+STA test. Conclusion: It should be considered that patients with positive Brucella serology due to active disease but without clinical findings, carry the risk of Brucellosis associated with blood transfusion in endemic regions including our country. © 2021, Turk Hijyen ve Deneysel Biyoloji Dergisi. All Rights Reserved.