Prevalence and Incidence of Viral Infections among Musculoskeletal Tissue Donors and First-Time Blood Donors

Background: Musculoskeletal tissue is second only to blood as the most frequently transplanted human tissue, and there continues to be an enormous demand for these allografts throughout the world. Little information is known about the risks associated with musculoskeletal tissue donation. Viral infection is a potential complication of tissue transplantation, and the prevalence and incidence of infection among tissue donors provides an indication of the relative safety of the tissue supply in different countries.

Objective: To define the prevalence and incidence of markers of HIV, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) in musculoskeletal tissue donors in Australia, and to compare the results with recently published data on rates of viral infection among tissue donors from Canada, Scotland, and the United States (1–3). We also compared the results with blood donors, who are comparable because they have satisfied similar donor selection criteria and have not been previously tested …