Abstract
Little is known about the type and longevity of the humoral response to cryptosporidial infections in developing countries. We evaluated serum antibody response to Cryptosporidium gp15 in 150 sets of maternal, preweaning and postinfection/end-of-follow-up sera from children followed up to 2 years of age to determine the influence of maternal and preweaning serological status on childhood cryptosporidiosis. Fifty two percent (N = 78) of mothers and 20% (N = 30) of children were seropositive preweaning. However, most positive preweaning samples from children were collected early in life indicating transplacental transfer and subsequent rapid waning of antibodies. Although 62% (N = 94) of children had a parasitologically confirmed cryptosporidial infection (detected by stool polymerase chain reaction) during the follow-up, only 54% (N = 51) of children were seropositive postinfection. Given there were striking differences in seropositivity depending on when the sample was collected, even though Cryptosporidium was detected in the stool of the majority of the children, this study indicates that antibodies wane rapidly. During follow-up, the acquisition or severity of cryptosporidial infections was not influenced by maternal (P = 0.331 and 0.720, respectively) as well as the preweaning serological status of the child (P = 0.076 and 0.196, respectively).
Highlights
Cryptosporidium is an important cause of gastroenteritis worldwide
Given there were striking differences in seropositivity depending on when the sample was collected, even though Cryptosporidium was detected in the stool of the majority of the children, this study indicates that antibodies wane rapidly
Of the 150 maternal samples, 78 (52%) were seropositive with a geometric mean concentrations (GMCs) of 465.6 arbitrary units (AU) and 72 (48%) were seronegative
Summary
Cryptosporidium is an important cause of gastroenteritis worldwide. In endemic regions, cryptosporidiosis is widely distributed within and across populations, ranging from selflimiting and/or asymptomatic infections in healthy people to life-threatening infections in immunocompromised individuals. Transmission of Cryptosporidium is predominantly through the fecal-oral route by the ingestion of oocysts, but can occur by person-to-person contact and zoonotic infection.[1,2] Individuals across all ages are affected, but in developing countries, the disease is seen predominantly in children where hygiene may be low and safe drinking water is scarce.[3] The excretion of environmentally resistant oocysts into water sources results in contaminated water being a risk factor for cryptosporidiosis in industrialized countries.[4,5,6] we have shown that provision of safe drinking water did not alter acquisition of infection or disease in young children in an urban slum in India,[6] possibly indicating multiple modes of transmission in a contaminated setting
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