TY - JOUR
T1 - Seroprevalence of Naegleria fowleri in the Houston–Galveston Texas Population
AU - Rojo, Juan U.
AU - Rajendran, Rajkumar
AU - Nyangau, Emmanuel M.
AU - Castellanos-Gonzalez, Alejandro
AU - Salazar, Jose
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024.
PY - 2024/12
Y1 - 2024/12
N2 - Naegleria fowleri is a free-living amoeba and the causative agent of Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rare yet almost always fatal disease that primarily affects children. While only 431 PAM cases have been reported worldwide, the southern states of the United States, including Texas, report the highest number of cases. Despite the high mortality of the disease, studies have identified antibodies to N. fowleri in healthy individuals suggesting that exposure to this pathogen is common, but disease is rare. Here, we investigated the seroprevalence of N. fowleri in the general population of individuals residing in an area of Texas to identify population characteristics or water-based activity levels that may be associated with seropositivity. For this, healthy human participants were surveyed, and blood samples were collected to test their sera against N. fowleri lysate by indirect ELISA. A seropositivity rate of 89% was observed with 40% of participants demonstrating a titer of up to 1:500. Demographic and water-activity level differences among subjects did not correlate with antibody titers. The high seropositivity suggests environmental exposure and the development of humoral immunity against this pathogen.
AB - Naegleria fowleri is a free-living amoeba and the causative agent of Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rare yet almost always fatal disease that primarily affects children. While only 431 PAM cases have been reported worldwide, the southern states of the United States, including Texas, report the highest number of cases. Despite the high mortality of the disease, studies have identified antibodies to N. fowleri in healthy individuals suggesting that exposure to this pathogen is common, but disease is rare. Here, we investigated the seroprevalence of N. fowleri in the general population of individuals residing in an area of Texas to identify population characteristics or water-based activity levels that may be associated with seropositivity. For this, healthy human participants were surveyed, and blood samples were collected to test their sera against N. fowleri lysate by indirect ELISA. A seropositivity rate of 89% was observed with 40% of participants demonstrating a titer of up to 1:500. Demographic and water-activity level differences among subjects did not correlate with antibody titers. The high seropositivity suggests environmental exposure and the development of humoral immunity against this pathogen.
KW - Free-living amoeba
KW - Naegleria fowleri
KW - Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis
KW - Seroprevalence
KW - Titers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85213390338&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85213390338&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00436-024-08443-3
DO - 10.1007/s00436-024-08443-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 39729228
AN - SCOPUS:85213390338
SN - 0932-0113
VL - 123
JO - Parasitology research
JF - Parasitology research
IS - 12
M1 - 421
ER -