Sero-prevalence of West Nile virus in Liver Transplant Recipients

Background and objectives: West Nile virus (WNV) is maintained in a transmission cycle involving birds and mosquito species, humans, accidental and dead ended hosts.Immunocompromised patients such as solid organ transplants have been identified as groups at higher risk for serious neurologic complications when compared to general population. Aim of this research was to determine sero prevalence of WNV among liver transplantation recipients during late spring to mid-Autumn 2018.Materials and Methods: A total of 53 Adults patients who had underwent orthotropic liver transplantation were included in the study. Theydidn’t have any clinical finding potentially consistent with WNV infection.WNV IgG by ELISA was measured on their serum samples.all ELISA reactive sera were evaluated by IFA tests and finally all sero-positive tests were checked for WNV RNA by aOne-steprtreal time PCR for WNV RNA by using primer and probe specific for WNV. Results: Of 53 liver transplant recipients, 19 (36%) were females and 34 (64%) were males. The age range was from 18 to 69 years (mean±SD 42.6±13.1 years). The overall prevalence of positive WNV IgG Antibody was 21 %( 11 out of 53 patients) by using ELISA method.All of the ELISA positive patients were also found to be positive by qualitative IFA test. Results showed that the highest prevalence rates (60%) of WNV IgG were in the age group 46-69 years. All sero-positive sera tested by rt real time PCR for WNV RNA were negative. Conclusion:as the results showed WNV sero-prevalence was 21% among the liver transplantation patients during late spring to mid-Autumn 2018.The positive rates are a bit higher than in most Iranian studies on general population, hence, WNV infection in transplant recipients should be considered more than before..