3 Singaporeans contracted dengue virus via blood donation - Lifestyle News

SINGAPORE, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Three people contracted the dengue virus from a blood donor last year, which is the first casein Singapore, local newspaper reported Friday.

Two men, aged 64 and 72, suffered fever, muscle pain and fluid build-up in their chests one to two days after receiving the blood, while the third man, 74, was infected without suffering any symptoms, local English language daily The Straits Times quoted a report published in a medical journal as saying.

The 52-year-old repeat blood donor did not show any symptoms of dengue at the time of donation, then informed the blood bank when he developed fever the day after, which prompted a check on the three recipients of his blood products, said the report.

The donation was made to the National University Hospital in July last year. All three recipients then were discharged from the hospital in good health, according to the article.

Professor Paul Ananth Tambyah, the author of the article in the New England Journal of Medicine, told the newspaper that the risk of mosquito-borne dengue being transmitted through the blood supply was extremely low, "probably less than one in a million".

With such low risk, large numbers of screening tests on donors would need to be done to pick up even a single case of dengue, however any decision to do such tests would be an economic, and not medical, one, said the report.