%0 Journal Article
%T Seroprevalance of antibodies specific for severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus and the discovery of asymptomatic infections in Henan Province, China
%A Aiguo You
%A Bianli Xu
%A Haifeng Wang
%A Hongxia Ma
%A Jia Su
%A Ningning Cheng
%A Xueyong Huang
%A Yanhua Du
%A Yi Li
%A Yifei Nie
%J -
%D 2019
%R 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007242
%X Background Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a severe emerging disease caused by SFTS virus (SFTSV), and the geographical distribution of SFTS has been increasing throughout China in recent years. To assess SFTSV-specific antibody seroprevalence, a cross-sectional study was conducted for healthy people in high SFTS endemic areas of Henan province in 2016.   Methods This study used a stratified random sampling method to select 14 natural villages as the investigation sites. From April to May 2016, participants completed a questionnaire survey and serum samples were collected. All serum samples were subjected to ELISA to detect SFTSV-specific IgM and IgG. All IgM-positive samples were further tested by real-time RT-PCR, and isolation of virus from serum was attempted. Any participant who was IgM-positive was followed up with a month later to confirm health status.   Results In total, 1463 healthy people participated in this study. The average seropositive rates for SFTSV-specific IgG and IgM were 10.46% (153/1463) and 0.82% (12/1463), respectively. IgM was detected in 12 individuals, and SFTSV RNA was detected in six of them. Virus was isolated from five of the six SFTSV RNA-positive individuals, and phylogenetic analyses revealed that all five isolates belonged to SFTSV group A. No IgM-positive participants exhibited any symptoms or other signs of illness at the one-month follow up.   Conclusions This study identified a relatively high incidence of SFTSV-specific antibody seropositivity in healthy people in Xinyang city. Moreover, our data provide the first evidence for asymptomatic SFTSV infections, which may have significant implications for SFTS outbreak control
%K Fevers
%K Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction
%K China
%K Enzyme-linked immunoassays
%K Phylogenetic analysis
%K Polymerase chain reaction
%K Nucleotide sequencing
%K Thrombocytopenia
%U https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0007242