West Nile Virus Positive Blood Donation and Subsequent Entomological Investigation, Austria, 2014

Kolodziejek, Jolanta; Seidel, Bernhard; Jungbauer, Christof; Dimmel, Katharina; Kolodziejek, Michael; Rudolf, Ivo; Hubálek, Zdenek; Allerberger, Franz; Nowotny, Norbert

As of June 2014, all blood donations originating from the province of Vienna are screened for WNV-RNA (PCR performed by the German Red Cross, Blood Service for Baden-Württemberg-Hessen, Frankfurt, Germany). A blood donation from 12 August 2014 tested positive for WNV-RNA. Serologically, the sample was WNV-IgM-positive and WNV-IgG-negative. Reexamination of the sample was performed at the Department of Virology of the Medical University of Vienna, the Austrian National Reference Laboratory for Flavivirus Infections. Following confirmation of the positive result, the Austrian Federal Office for Safety in Health Care (BASG), and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) were informed. Appropriate actions were taken according to the guidelines of the BMG from August 2014 (http://www.bmg. gv.at/cms/site2/attachments/2/7/5/CH1082/CMS1408527163324/westnilvirus_leitfaden_ 20140820.pdf), which correspond to the respective European legislation. On 19 August 2014 this case was also reported to ECDC (http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/west_nile_ fever/West-Nile-fever-maps/pages/index.aspx).