title: Human infection with Wuchereria bancrofti in Matara, Sri Lanka: the use, in parallel, of an ELISA to detect filaria-specific IgG4 in urine and of ICT card tests to detect filarial antigen in whole blood.
abstract: The ICT card test to detect circulating filarial antigen and an ELISA that detects filaria-specific urinary IgG(4) were each used to screen 473 subjects from a community in Sri Lanka where Wuchereria bancrofti is endemic. When the ICT test was used as the gold standard, the ELISA was found to have a sensitivity of 91.2%. However, far more of the subjects were found ELISA-positive than ICT-positive (76.5% v. 31.1%). The youngest children studied (aged 1-10 years) were similar to the adult subjects in terms of the prevalence of antigenaemia (33.8%) and the prevalence (72.1%) and concentration of filaria-specific IgG(4) in their urine. Therefore, especially as urine samples are easier, less painful and safer to collect than blood samples, the ELISA may be particularly useful to screen very young and school-age children, to estimate current levels of transmission in a particular area.
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna, P.O. Box 70, Galle, Sri Lanka. miraniw@paras.ruh.ac.lk
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Weerasooriya
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Itoh
authors.forename: M P S
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Mudalige
authors.forename: X-G
authors.initials: XG
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Gunawardena
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujimaki
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000818:Animals; D000947:Antigens, Helminth / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005368:Filariasis / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis* / Q000652:urine; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011934:Reagent Strips; D013188:Sri Lanka / Q000453:epidemiology; D014958:Wuchereria bancrofti / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000947:Antigens, Helminth; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D011934:Reagent Strips