title: The relation between seroprevalence of antibodies against phenolic glycolipid-I among school children and leprosy endemicity in Brazil.
abstract: Leprosy control programs would benefit expressively from an easy method to estimate disease prevalence and to assess the effect of leprosy control measures on disease prevalence. Determination of the seroprevalence of antibodies to PGL-I through school children surveys might be a useful indicator of leprosy prevalence at the district level. To investigate whether seropositivity rates could be related to leprosy detection rates and whether seropositivity could be used as a proximal indicator to predict the leprosy incidence in other areas, 7,073 school children in three different leprosy-endemic states in Brazil were tested. The results show a widely varying distribution of seropositivity in the communities independent of the number of leprosy cases detected. Seroprevalence was significantly lower at private schools. No differences in the patterns of seropositivity between ELISA and dipstick were observed. No correlation between leprosy detection rate and seropositivity rates could be established.
authors.affiliation: KIT Biomedical Research, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdan, Netherlands. buhrersekula@iptsp.ufg.br
authors.forename: Samira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bührer-Sékula
authors.forename: Stella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: van Beers
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Oskam
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lecco
authors.forename: Elisabete Santos
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Madeira
authors.forename: Marco Antonio Lopes
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Dutra
authors.forename: Magali Chaves
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Luis
authors.forename: William R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Faber
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Klatser
mesh_terms: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology*; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006017:Glycolipids / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000097:blood; D007918:Leprosy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D009166:Mycobacterium leprae / Q000276:immunology*; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D006017:Glycolipids; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; C045169:phenolic glycolipid I, Mycobacterium leprae