[Prevalence of Bartonella henselae in blood donors and risk of blood transmission in Chile].

BACKGROUND: Bartonella henselae is the causal agent of cat scratch disease in immunocompetent persons and bacterial angiomatosis in immunocompromised patients. In Chile, the prevalence of antibodies against B. henselae in healthy children and adolescents is 13.3%, in persons with occupational risk 60.5%, and in cats 85.6%. There are no published data regarding the seroprevalence in blood donors in our country, so determining if B. henselae is present in the blood of donors at the time of donation is very important, since this microorganism can survive up to 35 days in the red blood cells stored in a blood bank at 4 °C.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of B. henselae in blood donors.

METHODOLOGY: 140 donor blood samples were analyzed to detect the presence of B. henselae, using the polymerase chain reaction technique.

RESULTS: 13.6% of the blood donors with positive polymerase chain reaction for B. henselae were obtained. The sequence of the amplified fragments showed an identity of over 98% with respect to B. henselae reference sequences.

CONCLUSION: The risk of blood transmission is due to a country with high B. henselae infection.