Seroepidemiology of Inoue-Melnick virus in the general population of Buffalo, New York.

The prevalence of antibodies to Inoue-Melnick virus (IMV) types 1 and 2 in the general population of Buffalo, New York, was studied. Serum specimens were collected from blood donors, and pediatric sera were provided from the Buffalo Children's Hospital. Neutralizing antibody titers against IMV were measured with established procedures. Very high prevalence of antibodies to both IMV types 1 and 2 were found in sera from children of Buffalo, especially in the age group 15-19 years (nearly 100%). The antibody positivity gradually decreased with advancing age, except for the groups of age 60 and older. This is in sharp contrast to a previous report examining sera from the people of Osaka, Japan, in which IMV antibody was not found in children under 10 years of age. In the group of teenagers in Buffalo, with high geometric mean antibody titers, an association with any disease was not found. The peculiar distribution of antibodies to IMV was considered to be possibly related to the high incidence of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the Buffalo area, in contrast to the data from Osaka, Japan, which is a low incidence area for MS.