Seroprevalence of EV-A71 neutralizing antibodies following the 2011 epidemic in HCMC, Vietnam

PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2020 Mar 3;14(3):e0008124. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008124. eCollection 2020 Mar.

Abstract

Enterovirus-A71 (EV-A71) cyclically causes hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) epidemics in Asian children. An EV-A71 epidemic occurred in Southern Vietnam in 2011, but its scale is not clear. We collected residual sera from non-HFMD Vietnamese inpatients in 2012-2013 to determine seroprevalence of EV-A71 neutralizing antibodies, and measured cross-reactive neutralizing antibody titers against three EV-A71 genogroups. About 23.5% of 1-year-old children in Southern Vietnam has been infected by EV-A71, and the median age of infection was estimated to be 3 years. No significant antigenic variation could be detected among the three EV-A71 genogroups. The high seroprevalence of EV-A71 neutralizing antibody in children living in southern Vietnam indicates the necessity of introducing EV-A71 vaccines in southern Vietnam, particularly for children under 6 months of age. Moreover, it is critical to understand EV-A71 disease burden for formulating national vaccination policy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Antibodies, Neutralizing / blood*
  • Antibodies, Viral / blood*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Enterovirus A, Human / immunology*
  • Female
  • Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease / epidemiology*
  • Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease / immunology*
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Male
  • Seroepidemiologic Studies
  • Vietnam / epidemiology

Substances

  • Antibodies, Neutralizing
  • Antibodies, Viral

Grants and funding

This study was supported by National Health Research Institutes Taiwan and National Flagship Grant, Taiwan (MOST 106-3114-Y404-002) (https://www.most.gov.tw/?l=en), awarded to Dr. Min-Shi Lee. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.