Transmission of enveloped viruses by blood products prepared from pooled plasma has fortunately become an extremely rare event due to the efficacy of the applied virus inactivation procedures. The inactivation procedures are, however, much less effective against non-enveloped viruses such as human parvovirus B19 (B19) [for review, 1; 2]. Consequently, B19 infections in association with administration of plasma-derived products are still reported until now [3,4].In September 1999, acute B19 infection was diagnosed by routine blood evaluation in two hemophilic children being treated at the university hospital of Bonn. Because B19 DNA was detected in all blood products recently administered to the children, viral transmission by the products could not be excluded. To clarify the causal relationship between product administration and B19 infection, DNA sequencing of the B19 genomes isolated from the patients and the coagulation products was performed. The results show that the administered products have to be considered as source of the B19 infection in both children.
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