Is transfusion-transmitted dengue fever a potential public health threat?

Table 1 Main arboviruses exhibiting a potential or demonstrated transfusion-associated risk

	Dengue virus	West Nile virus	Saint-Louis encephalitis virus	Tick-borne encephalitis virus	Chikungunya virus	Colorado tick fever virus
Family	Flaviviridae	Flaviviridae	Flaviviridae	Flaviviridae	Togaviridae	Reoviridae
Virus characteristics
Nucleic acid Envelope	ssRNA Yes	ssRNA Yes	ssRNA Yes	ssRNA Yes	ssRNA Yes	dsRNA No
Vectors	Mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus)	Mosquitoes (genus Culex but also Aedes albopictus)	Mosquitoes (genus Culex)	Ticks (genus Ixodes)	Mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus)	Ticks (Dermacentor andersoni)
Usual vertebrate hosts	Humans	Birds	Birds	Rodents	Humans, primates	Humans
Geographical distribution	World (mainly intertropical regions)	Asia, Africa, Europe, Americas	Americas	Europe, Asia	Africa, Asia, West Pacific, Europe,	Western USA and Canada
Clinical features
Incubation period in days	2-14	2-14	4-21	7-14	1-12	3-6
Asymptomatic forms	75%	80%	> 99%	80%	15%	low%
Clinical manifestations	DF-DHF-DSS	Fever- encephalitis	Fever-encephalitis	Fever- encephalitis	Fever- joint pains	Fever-encephalitis
Vaccine	Phase III trials	No	No	Yes	No	No
Demonstrated transfusion-transmitted cases	Yes	Yes (high number)	No	Yes	No	Yes

ssRNA: Single-stranded RNA; dsRNA: Double-stranded RNA; DF: Dengue fever; DHF: Dengue hemorrhagic fever; DSS: Dengue shock syndrome; CHIKV: Chikungunya virus.