Hepatitis E Virus Infections in Blood

ples, corresponding to 53,234 blood donations) from France that had been processed with solvent–detergent for hepa-titis E virus RNA. The detection rate was 1 HEV-positive sample/2,218 blood donations. Most samples (22/24) from viremic donors were negative for IgG and IgM against HEV. Hepatitis E virus (HEV), family Hepeviridae, genus Hepevirus, is a small nonenveloped RNA virus that has an icosahedral capsid and is transmitted by the fecal– oral route (1). Transfusion-transmitted HEV infections have been documented in several countries in Europe and Asia (2–4). HEV has also been detected in human blood products (5–12). Despite considerable geographic variation in HEV seroprevalence in Europe, southern France seems to be an area to which this virus is hyperendemic (13). We conducted a prospective study in France of mini-pools of plasma from blood donations that were processed with solvent–detergent and used standardized molecular assays for detection of HEV RNA. Data obtained were used to estimate the detection rate of HEV infections in blood donors in France and the risk for HEV transmission by blood transfusion. The Study Since November 27, 2012, systematic nucleic acid am-plification screening for HEV has been used on blood dona-tions (pools of 96 samples) in France for a 70-L plasma pool that was processed with solvent–detergent. A mixture of 96 plasma samples (50 µL from each sample) was prepared by using a distributor (Tecan, Männedorf, Switzerland) to give a final volume of 4.8 mL. Simultaneously, a 96-well archive microplate was used for serologic testing and to identify individual HEV RNA–positive samples. Plasma samples were collected at 13/14 regional blood transfusion establishments of the French Blood Service in continental France (Figure 1). HEV RNA was extracted by using the Nuclisens Eas