Stability and Feasibility of Dried Blood Spots for Hepatitis E Virus Serology in a Rural Setting.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the most common cause of acute viral hepatitis worldwide. In many low-income countries it causes large outbreaks and disproportionally affects pregnant women and their offspring. Surveillance studies to find effective preventive interventions are needed but are hampered by the lack of funding and infrastructure. Dried blood spots (DBS) offer an easier and more robust way to collect, transport, and store blood samples compared to plasma/serum samples, and could ease some of the barriers for such studies. In this study we optimize an HEV IgG ELISA for DBS samples and validate it on 300 paired DBS and plasma samples collected in rural areas of Bangladesh from participants in a HEV vaccine study. We demonstrate that HEV IgG in blood stored as DBS is stable for two mo

SUBMITTER: Overbo J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9692628 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature