Serological Evidence of Hantavirus Infection in Farm and Abattoir Workers in Trinidad—A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Hantaviruses are established causative agents of hemorrhagic fevers and renal diseases amongst other clinical manifestations in humans, with most diagnosis based on serological assays. The disease, which is rodent-borne, has been reported in numerous countries worldwide but information about the disease is scanty in the Caribbean. The objective of this investigation is to determine the frequency of exposure to hantaviruses in a selected apparently healthy human population associated with abattoirs and livestock farms in Trinidad using a hantavirus immunoglobulin G (IgG) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Of a total of 236 individuals tested, 27 (11.4%) were seropositive for hantavirus infection. Amongst abattoir workers the frequency of infection was 9.4% (6 of 64) compared with seropositivity rate of 12.4% (18 of 145) and 11.1% (3 of 27) amongst livestock farm workers and office workers and other individuals with minimal animal contact respectively. The differences were, however, not statistically significant (p > .05; χ(2) test). Age, gender, and race did not significantly affect the infection rate by hantavirus in the workers studied. This is considered the first documented evidence of hantavirus infection in Trinidad and Tobago. It is imperative for local physicians to consider hantavirus as a differential diagnosis in patients with hemorrhagic fever and renal diseases, since there may be a number of undiagnosed cases of hantavirus disease in the human population in the country.

Occupational Hantavirus Infections in Agricultural and Forestry Workers: A Systematic Review and Metanalysis

“…Prevalence of the seropositive status ranged from zero cases [51,55], to 30.6% in a more recent survey from Sweden [31]. When the prevalence rates were broken down by geographic areas, they ranged from 3.0% (0.9-9.2) in eight estimates from the New World [16][17][18]26,27,34,51,52], 3.0% (1.5-6.2) in 14 estimates from European countries [15,[21][22][23][24][25]30,31,35,36,49,50,53,55], to 7.1% (3.2-14.8) in two studies from Western Africa [19,20], and eventually 7.4% (3.0-17.0) in four estimates from Asian Countries [28,29,33]. When estimates for New World were dichotomized for North vs. Central and South America, seroprevalence rates were 1.2% (0.4-3.6) and 4.5% (1.3-14.1), respectively (data not shown in Figure 2).…”

Seroprevalence of Seven Zoonotic Pathogens in Pregnant Women from the Caribbean

“…23,24 Antibodies to hantaviruses were not detected in any of the samples analyzed in this study; this is in contrast to a recent study that showed significant exposure rates among farm and abattoir workers in Trinidad. 25 Further investigations to evaluate the risk for hantavirus infection in the Caribbean are thus warranted.…”

Serum LPS Associated with Hantavirus and Dengue Disease Severity in Barbados

“…including SEOV, HTNV, PUUV, DOBV, and SNV. In the Caribbean serological and molecular evidence of hantavirus transmission exists for Grenada, Trinidad and Cuba (Sin Nombre strain positive by RT-PCR) however no extensive epidemiological data on hantavirus infection exists for the Caribbean [27,28,29,30]. Recent hantavirus outbreaks in adjacent regions including 4 fatal HPS cases observed in French Guiana (Maripa virus) in 2016 enhance the risk of new and more lethal hantavirus strains entering the Caribbean region via trade and travel [31].…”