Prevalence and risk factors of human pegivirus type 1 infection in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the prevalence, risk factors, and genotypes of human pegivirus type 1 (HPgV-1) in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) patients.

METHODS

One hundred and eighty-eight HSCT patients and 694 healthy blood donors were investigated retrospectively, including their demographic information and HPgV-1 infection status.

RESULTS

When compared with healthy blood donors, a significantly higher HPgV-1 prevalence (18.6% vs. 2.3%) and a high risk of HPgV-1 infection (odds ratio 9.7) were observed in HSCT patients (p<0.05). The number of transfusions in patients with RNA test conversions (negative to positive) was significantly higher than the number in patients without conversions (negative to negative) (median 10 vs. 1) (p<0.05). Although HPgV-1 infection is independent of age, sex, blood type, hepatitis B virus infection, hepatitis C virus infection, marriage status, and type of hematological malignancy (p>0.05), race might be a risk factor for infection (p<0.05). The great majority (95.7%) of HPgV-1-positive patients were infected with genotype 3.

CONCLUSIONS

HPgV-1 is highly prevalent in HSCT patients, and blood transfusions can significantly increase the risk of HPgV-1 infection. Thus, HPgV-1 screening is recommended in HSCT patients to reduce the potential impact of infection on survival, as well as in their blood and stem cell donors to reduce the risk of infection after transfusions, unless the beneficial effects of HPgV-1 infection in immunocompromised patients are clearly confirmed.