Prevention of transfusion‐associated cytomegalovirus infection in very low‐birthweight infants using frozen blood and donors seronegative for cytomegalovirus

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Abstract
During a 15 mo. period, 34 low birthweight infants (< 1300 g) lacking maternal antibody to cytomegalovirus (CMB) received transfusions from an average of 10 donors/infant. Blood products consisted of predominantly washed deglycerolized frozen red cells from donors lacking antibody to CMV (an average of 9 seronegative donors < infant). None of these infants acquired CMV infection while hospitalized. The absnece of acquired CMV infections in these infants was in marked contrast (P < 0.001) to the incidence of CMV infections in seronegative low-birthweight infants during the previous 21 mo. period when 28% acquired CMV (7 of 25 infants). The infants in this previous group received transfusions from an average of 11 donors/infant with an average of 4 seropositive donors/infant. These results confirm that hospital-acquired CMV infections can be prevented for very low-birthweight infants by donor selection and/or blood processing.