High Seropositivity Rate of Neutralizing Antibodies to Astrovirus VA1 in Human Populations.

Astroviruses are common pathogens of the human gastrointestinal tract, but they have been recently identified from cases of fatal meningoencephalitis. Astrovirus VA1 is the most frequently detected astrovirus genotype from cases of human encephalitis, but the prevalence of neutralizing antibodies to VA1 in human sera is unknown. We developed a focus reduction neutralization assay (FRNT) for VA1 and measured the seroprevalence of neutralizing antibodies from two cohorts of adult and pediatric serum samples: (i) an age-stratified cohort from St.

[Comparison of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) diagnosis by serology and by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)].

Introduction: The identification of EPEC in clinical laboratories is based on the determination of the serotypes by agglutination with O and H antiserum. Currently the proper diagnosis of EPEC should be done by the identification of the intimin gen (eaeA) by PCR.

Objectives: To compare the diagnosis of EPEC by serotyping and by PCR.

[Serologic prevalence of HCV antibodies in health personnel in Peru].

In Peru, new cases of asymptomatic HCV infection are reported with certain frequency in patients with or without antecedents of blood transfusion. Although serologic screening has improved notoriously in the last years, there is still a population of polytransfused patients with high HCV risk (e.g.

[ANTI-HAV IgG PREVALENCE IN A POPULTION BETWEEN 1 AND 39 YEARS OLD IN LIMA,PERU].

The prevalence of Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) in a country largely reflects its standards of hygiene and socio-economic conditions. In The 80's, it was reported 98% positive anti-HAV in adults and 82% in children; the rate increased with age, from 30% in thosed aged 1 year old to 100% in those of 8 years old.From October to December 1999, we performed a Sero-epidemiologic survey to evaluate the presence of Hepatitis A antibody (anti-HAV) in 859 subjects (518 were children and 341 adults), aged fron 1 to 39 years old, divided in two groups according to their socio-economic status (high and very high, low and very low).

[HEPATITIS E IgG ANTIBODIES SEROPREVALENCE IN A PERUVIAN RISK GROUP].

We study the seroprevalence and risk factors on hepatitis E virus infection in 191 healthy subjects, which are workers of the drinking water and sewerage system of Lima city, and the main activity of them was to handle sewage at present or early past. We tested for IgG hepatitis E antibodies (anti-HEV IgG) a two recombinant antigen based enzyme immunoassay (Abbott IL USA).Anti-HEV IgG were positive in 20 subjects (10.