Obeidi Narges, Rajasekariah G-Halli, Nabipour Iraj, Amirinejad Roya, Dogcio Diane, Emami Habib
The Persian Gulf Tropical Medicine Research Center, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran.
Cellabs Pty Ltd, Unit 7, No. 27 Dale Street, Brookvale, NSW 2100, Australia.
Int Sch Res Notices. 2014 Oct 9;2014:614287. doi: 10.1155/2014/614287. eCollection 2014.
Background. South eastern parts of Iran remain endemic for malaria infection. There is some concern that malaria infection may spread into Bushehr, which is located in the south western part bordering the Persian Gulf and at the periphery of the declared endemic region Hormozgan province due to frequency of visitors from eastern endemic areas and from neighboring malaria endemic countries. We investigated malaria prevalence in Bushehr. Methods and Results. Attempts were made to identify malaria active infection in blood smears and malaria specific antibody and antigens in serum samples. Traditional blood smears prepared from 1955 blood specimens yielded no definitive malaria positive case by microscopic technique. A total of 270 (13.8%) serum samples were positive for malaria antibodies. Using specific ELISA kits, presence of histidine rich proteins and lactate dehydrogenase antigens were investigated in serum samples. No histidine rich proteins specific for P. falciparum were detected amongst 270 antibody positive samples. However, six samples representing 0.3% of total population, were found to be positive for plasmodium pan specific lactate dehydrogenase antigens. This suggested the possibility of low level exposure to malaria in Bushehr community. Conclusions. Out of a total of 1955 samples tested, 270 (13.8%) were positive for malaria antibodies and six (0.3%) of these were positive for plasmodium-specific lactate dehydrogenase antigen suggesting a low level exposure to malaria in a hypoendemic region based on immunological testing. Since none of the 270 antibody samples were positive for histidine rich protein antigens, there is scope for further testing of blood samples by molecular methods such as polymerase chain reactions to confirm the plasmodium species and provide information valuable for future investigations. Our testing strategy for hypoemdemic malaria can be used as a template for investing malaria in 32 eliminating countries for testing ongoing transmission. This approach may be useful as a method in epidemiological studies.
背景。伊朗东南部仍是疟疾感染的流行地区。有人担心，由于来自东部流行地区和邻国疟疾流行国家的游客频繁到访，疟疾感染可能会蔓延至布什尔，该地区位于与波斯湾接壤的西南部，处于已宣布的流行地区霍尔木兹甘省的周边。我们对布什尔的疟疾流行情况进行了调查。方法与结果。我们试图在血涂片以及血清样本中鉴定疟疾活跃感染情况、疟疾特异性抗体和抗原。用1955份血液标本制作的传统血涂片，通过显微镜技术未发现确诊的疟疾阳性病例。共有270份（13.8%）血清样本的疟疾抗体呈阳性。使用特定的酶联免疫吸附测定试剂盒，对血清样本中富含组氨酸的蛋白质和乳酸脱氢酶抗原的存在情况进行了调查。在270份抗体阳性样本中，未检测到恶性疟原虫特异性的富含组氨酸的蛋白质。然而，有6份样本（占总人口的0.3%）被发现疟原虫全特异性乳酸脱氢酶抗原呈阳性。这表明布什尔社区存在低水平疟疾暴露的可能性。结论。在总共检测的1955份样本中，270份（13.8%）疟疾抗体呈阳性，其中6份（0.3%）疟原虫特异性乳酸脱氢酶抗原呈阳性，这表明基于免疫检测，在低流行地区存在低水平疟疾暴露。由于270份抗体样本中没有一份富含组氨酸的蛋白质抗原呈阳性，因此有必要通过聚合酶链反应等分子方法对血样进行进一步检测，以确认疟原虫种类，并为未来的调查提供有价值的信息。我们针对低流行疟疾的检测策略可作为模板，用于对32个正在消除疟疾的国家进行疟疾检测，以调查持续传播情况。这种方法在流行病学研究中可能会有用。
