a pilot study on presence of sars-cov-2-rna in iranian blood donors

Background: with the rapidly increasing incidence of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) and the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2) rna in plasma, blood supply safety has become a main concern. objectives: due to some reports on the detection of rnaemia in sars-cov-2-infected blood donors, this study examined the presence of sars-cov-2 rna in asymptomatic blood donors. methods: in this cross-sectional study, about 400 blood donors from the tehran blood transfusion center with negative results for viral serological markers of hepatitis b virus (hbv), hepatitis c virus (hcv), and human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) were included in the study. moreover, all samples were tested for anti-sars-cov-2 elisa (igg) to detect antibodies against sars-cov-2. the presence of sars-cov-2 rna in blood donors was identified by targeting rna-dependent, rna polymerase (rdrp), and n (nucleocapsid protein) genes using real-time pcr. furthermore, the rnase p gene was used as an internal control. results: the sars-cov-2 elisa test showed that 60 (15%) of blood donors had antibodies against sars-cov-2 nucleocapsid protein, and 340 (85%) of the participants have not been exposed to the virus. the cycle threshold (ct) for positive control in the rt-pcr test for nucleocapsid (n) and rdrp sars-cov-2 genes was < 40 (ct = 20.37). moreover, internal control (rnase p gene) in all samples had ct < 40. the presence of sars-cov-2 rna was detected in the blood sample of none of the blood donors. in this regard, there has been no report of sars-cov-2 transmission to blood recipients yet. conclusions: the blood-borne transmission of sars-cov-2 seems to be highly unlikely, and coronavirus rna screening is unnecessary among blood donors. preventive measures should be adopted to reduce the theoretical risk of transmitting sars-cov-2 by the blood from asymptomatic covid-19 cases.