[Effectiveness of using cultured antigens for the serodiagnosis of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome by the immunofluorescence method].

Clinical serological studies of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) demonstrated high effectiveness of indirect immunofluorescence procedure (IF) for serodiagnosis of this infection. The use of HFRS virus-infected VERO-E6 cells as the antigen for IF enhanced the sensitivity and specificity of the method as compared with the use of cryostatic sections of the lung tissue from wild rodents spontaneously infected with HFRS virus as the antigen. A technology for preparation of a polyvalent HFRS diagnosticum containing the antigens of two virus serotypes has been developed for serological diagnosis of HFRS in the European foci where the serological evidence of circulation of strains of serotypes 1 and 2 of HFRS virus pathogenic for man has been obtained. The specificity and sensitivity of detection of antibody to HFRS virus serotypes 1 and 2 by IF test using the polyvalent diagnosticum is equal to that in tests using individually tissue culture antigens of HFRS virus serotypes 1 and 2. It was found that in the patients' native sera antibodies of the IgM class are masked by antibodies of the IgG fraction, therefore the use of IF technique for detection of IgM antibody to HFRS virus aimed at early serological diagnosis of this infection is not effective.