High prevalence of TT virus-related DNA (90%) and diverse viral genotypes in Norwegian blood donors

Early estimates of the prevalence of TTV viremia in healthy adults of developed countries were in the order of 1-10 %, while similar estimates in Third World countries were considerably higher. Using three different PCRs, TTV-related DNA was detected in serum from 180 out of the 201 Norwegian blood donors tested, indicating that these viruses are almost universally present in adults. Sequence analysis revealed heterogeneity similar to what is found world-wide. The data suggest that the previous discrepancy in prevalences might be related to a lower serum concentration of virus in developed countries. The high prevalence adds evidence to the benign nature of the virus. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.