Global prevalence of human pegivirus-1 in healthy volunteer blood donors: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background and objectives: The local prevalence of HPgV-1 has been reported from different countries worldwide, but the global prevalence of HPgV-1 remains unknown. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to gather data from the literature to estimate the prevalence of HPgV-1 in healthy volunteer blood donors in the world. Materials and methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus and Google Scholar databases for records up to January 2019 and included studies reporting HPgV-1 virus prevalence amongst healthy volunteer blood donors based on the detection of HPgV-1 RNA. Results: In all, we included 79 studies for the systematic review and 63 for the meta-analysis. Based on the random effect meta-analysis of 35 468 volunteer blood donors, we found the global prevalence of HPgV-1 to be 3·1% (95% CI, 2·4–4·1). The pooled prevalences of HPgV-1 were 1·7% (95% CI, 1·1–2·6) in North America, 9·1% (95% CI, 6·4–12·7) in South America, 2·3% (95% CI, 2%, 2·8) in Europe and 2·4% (95% CI, 1·4–4) in Asia. Subgroup analyses based on age, gender or risk factors were not possible. Conclusion: Approximately 3 in 100 blood donations worldwide are positive for HPgV-1 increasing the risk of infection from transfusion of their components to subsequent recipients. Further research on virus pathogenicity is required before recommending routine screening of HPgV-1 for healthy volunteer blood donors.