Frequency of West Nile Virus Infection in Iranian Blood Donors

West Nile virus (WNV) can be transmitted by blood transfusions and organ transplants. This study was a retrospective study which was performed in Blood Transfusion Center to evaluate the WNV infection in blood donors in Iran. A total of 540 blood samples were taken from volunteer healthy donors who referred for blood donation to Chabahar Blood Center. The presence of WNV was studied by detecting immunoglobulin G (IgG) WNV by enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA). Demonstration of elevated WNV IgG confirmed by immunoflouorescence assay (IFA) Euroimmun kit. Out of the 540 samples 17.96 % (97 cases) were seropositive by ELISA and 1.48 % (8 cases) was seropositive by IFA. This means that 8.24 % of ELISA seropositive samples were confirmed by IFA. Special attention should be paid to criteria of donor selection, albeit positive results may be due to a previous infection in these donors.