Background & Objective: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) has worldwide distribution and its prevalence rate depends on factors such as economic and geographical conditions. An important way of the virus transmission is via blood. Due to high prevalence of antibodies against the virus in blood donors and lack of data concerning its seroprevalence in the region, this study was carried out to determine the frequency of IgG and IgM antibodies in Zanjan province in 2004 .
Materials & Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on 500 healthy donors referring to blood transfusion center. Demographic data were recorded in the questionnaires and following the routine screening tests, antibody tests against CMV (IgG and IgM) were performed by Italian Radium kit through ELISA technique and the data were analysed using t and χ 2 tests.
Results: Out of 500 research samples, 85.8% were males and 14.2% females. IgG antiviral antibody was positive in 446 people (89.2%), negative in 8 people (1.6%) and weak positive in 46 people (9.2%). Moreover, IgM anti viral antibody was negative in 481 cases (96.2%), positive in 17 cases (3.4%) and unclear in 2 cases (0.4%).
Conclusions: Regarding the high seroprevalence of CMV in Zanjan province and latency of the virus inside the blood cells and its possible transmission via blood and blood products to blood receivers, particularly among immunodeficient patients, screening test of donated blood samples for CMV specially in high risk cases is recommended.