Abstract:
The main aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of human
cytomegalovirus (HCMV) IgG antibodies using the Enzyme-Linked
Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), among 75 blood donors and 40 apparently
healthy individuals as control group with ages ranging from 18-52 years.
The blood samples were, aseptically, collected from 75 blood donor
volunteers attending the blood bank of Khartoum, Khartoum North and
Omdurman Chinese–Friendship Teaching Hospitals and 40 normal individuals.
While 73 blood donors have been found positive (97.3%) for anti-CMV IgG,
39 subjects were positive (97.5%) among the control group.
All of the possible risk factors have been examined in this study, i.e. age,
sex, marital status, major blood groups and previous blood transfusions had
no significant effect (P>0.05) on CMV IgG antibodies among both the blood
donors and the control group. The results of this study have strongly been
in line with the previous findings that CMV is one of the most commonly
prevalent viral infections in Sudan (80-100%). Although primary CMV
infection among normal immunocompetant individuals is not one of the
clinically serious viral infections in Sudan, further in-depth studies are
needed to elucidate this disease, because of its serious complications (e.g.
abortions and congenital defects) among the immunocompromised persons
(AIDS, hemodialysis and transplant recipient patients). Furthermore, we
strongly recommend the screening of blood for CMV antibodies among blood
and organ transplant donors.
