The prevalence and persistence of human parvovirus B19 infection in thalassemic patients

Human parvovirus B19 infection was studied in 60 thalassemic patients in Thailand. Seroprevalence, persistence of parvovirus B19 and their genotypes were identified in blood samples. Prevalence of anti-parvovirus B19 IgG and DNA found in thalassemic patients were 38% and 13%, respectively. Anti-parvovirus B19 IgM could be detected in 4% of these positive anti-parvovirus B19 IgG patients. The seroprevalence and parvovirus B19 DNA in patients with a history of blood transfusion were not significantly higher than those without such a history (44% vs. 34% and 20% vs. 9%, respectively). Phylogenetic analysis of NS1 nucleotide sequences of three parvovirus B19 samples revealed that they were parvovirus B19 genotype 1. They showed low genetic diversity from prototype (Au) strain. We concluded that acute and chronic persistent parvovirus B19 infection were found in the thalassemic Thai patients. Chronic persistence of parvovirus B19 infection might play important clinical role in thalassemic patients because of the high prevalence of parvovirus B19 DNA. Blood transfusion had no significant influence to increase the prevalence of parvovirus B19 infection in thalassemic patients.