The relation between seroprevalence of antibodies against phenolic glycolipid-I among school children and leprosy endemicity in Brazil.
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.
Bührer-Sékula
Samira
S
KIT Biomedical Research, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdan, Netherlands. buhrersekula@iptsp.ufg.br
van Beers
Stella
S
Oskam
Linda
L
Lecco
Rita
R
Madeira
Elisabete Santos
ES
Dutra
Marco Antonio Lopes
MA
Luis
Magali Chaves
MC
Faber
William R
WR
Klatser
Paul R
PR
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
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D006017:Glycolipids; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; C045169:phenolic glycolipid I, Mycobacterium leprae