Dengue is an arthropod-borne viral disease caused by dengue virus, which is predominantly transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, most often Aedes (Ae.) aegypti and Ae. albopictus. The distribution of the disease is usually in tropical and subtropical areas. Dengue virus infections occur in more than 100 countries and regions in the world. Dengue constitutes a major public health concern and its outbreaks pose a substantial social economic burden. Dengue virus(DENV), a single-stranded positive-sense ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus with approximately 11,000 nucleotides in length, belongs to the Flaviviridae family and includes four serotypes (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, DENV-4) [1]. Infection with DENV is usually asymptomatic but each serotype is capable of causing dengue fever (DF) and the clinically more severe disease including dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndromes (DSS) [2]. Although dengue has lasted for several decades and widely distributed in various countries, whether dengue virus infection endangers blood safety remains unclear. Most recently, the risk of dengue transmission through blood products from infected donors was recognized.

Except for mosquito biting, DENV may be accidentally acquired after transfusion of blood products. So there exists potential risk of dengue transmission by blood transfusion. This is because DENV can be present for about one week in the blood of infected patients, while approximately 75% of the DENV carriers don’t appear any symptoms of dengue during this period. Since asymptomatic carriers may offer to donate blood, studies have shown that there are viremic donors during outbreaks in all investigated areas [3]. Although mandatory screening of donated blood products has tremendously reduced the risk of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus transmission, DENV has not been included in blood routine screening procedures Therefore DENV remains significant risks and endangers transfusion safety especially during its outbreaks.