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Seroepidemiological study reveals regional co‐occurrence of L assa‐ and H antavirus antibodies in U pper G uinea, W est A frica

2012; Wiley; Volume: 18; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/tmi.12045

1365-3156

Boris Klempa, Kékoura Koulemou, Brita Auste, Petra Emmerich, Corinna Thomé‐Bolduan, Stephan Günther, Lamine Koivogui, Detlev H. Krüger, Elisabeth Fichet‐Calvet,

Disaster Response and Management

Abstract Objectives To assess the public health relevance of L assa arenavirus and hantavirus infections in a subpopulation of recently febrile patients. Methods In a human seroprevalence study, we enrolled 253 participants on the basis of reported high fever during the last 3 months. They represented roughly 20% of the population of B antou and T anganya villages. Comprehensive serological screening and confirmatory assays (enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, immunofluorescence assay, W estern blot analysis) with several L assa virus and hantavirus antigens were used to ensure high specificity and broad detection capacity. Results We found a L assa I gG prevalence of 40.3% (102/253) and a hantavirus I gG prevalence of 1.2% (3/253). The L assa I gM prevalence reached 2.8% (7/253). Conclusions High L assa virus seroprevalence in recently febrile patients indicates that L assa fever is a significant public health problem in the region. Human hantavirus infections also occur in the region but their public health relevance remains to be determined.