Dried blood spot cards: A reliable sampling method to detect human antibodies against rabies virus.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although preventable by vaccination for more than a century, rabies virus still causes numerous fatalities every year. To determine antibody levels in humans, blood collected with a finger prick and applied on dried blood spot (DBS) cards is an alternative for venipuncture. The use of DBS is specifically valuable in remote areas, as it is easy to perform, store and transport. Therefore, the technique is frequently used for epidemiological studies of tropical diseases. Up to present, determination of rabies virus antibody levels on human DBS has not been validated.

Methodology/principal findings

We evaluated the use of human DBS for rabies serology and analyzed 99 pre- or post-vaccination serum and DBS samples with a fluorescent antibody virus neutralization test (

SUBMITTER: Doornekamp L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7584180 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature