Officials with the University of Campinas (Unicamp) the transmission of Zika virus via a blood transfusion, according to a Folha de São Paulo report (computer translated).
The director of the Hematology Division of the Blood Center at the university, Marcelo Addas Carvalho said that a patient was infected by Zika virus in March after receiving a blood transfusion from a asymptomatic donor.
According to Carvalho, the donor is a 52-year-old man of Sumaré, about 118 km from Sao Paulo, donated blood at the Blood Center of Unicamp without knowing he was infected. Three days later he became symptomatic.
Both donor and recipient have since recovered.
Virus isolation and sequencing was performed by the Adolfo Lutz Institute.
This is the first confirmed transfusion associated case in the country. Medical literature also has two records of transmission by semen.
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