Seroprevalence of Heartland Virus Antibodies in Blood Donors, Northwestern Missouri, USA

Abstract

We estimated the seroprevalence of Heartland virus antibodies to be 0.9% (95% CI 0.4%–4.2%) in a convenience sample of blood donors from northwestern Missouri, USA, where human cases and infected ticks have been identified. Although these findings suggest that some past human infections were undetected, the estimated prevalence is low.

Keywords

• Heartland virus
• viruses
• seroprevalence
• antibodies
• arbovirus
• blood donors