Global status of visceral leishmanial infection among blood donors: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Transmission of Leishmania through transfusion has been reported from various Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) endemic areas of the world. The true burden of Leishmania infection in blood donors remains generally unknown. Thus, the present systematic review attempted to determine the global prevalence of Leishmania infection among blood donors.

METHODS: Data were extracted through five English and five Persian databases during the period from 1997 to 2016. Overall, 16 articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were used for data extraction in this systematic review.

RESULTS: In total, 13,743 blood donors from different regions of world were examined. The prevalence rate of Leishmania infection according to seropositivity obtained 7% (95%CI: 5%, 8%). The lowest and the highest prevalence were related to Bangladesh 0.25% (95%CI: 0.0%, 1.0%) and Brazil, 16% (95%CI: 12%, 19%). Seroprevalence rate of leishmaniasis among females was more (4.60%) than males. Of 15 studies included in the meta-analysis, the pooled prevalence rate of molecular tests was obtained 2% (95%CI: 1%, 3%) in which Iran and Spain had the lowest and the highest prevalence, 0.05% and 7%, respectively. Our analysis showed that L. infantum was more common than L. donovani as etiological agent of VL among all donors.

CONCLUSION: Our data confirms the presence of asymptomatic carriers of VL in endemic areas and supplies as an attentive to the likelihood of these carriers acting as blood donors. Moreover, we conclude that molecular tests for screening in asymptomatic blood donor provide an accurate estimate of the rate of infection over serological tests.