Seroepidemiology of Human Bocavirus Infection in Jamaica

Hustedt, Joshua W.; Christie, Celia; Hustedt, Madison M.; Esposito, Daina; Vazquez, Marietta

Inclusion criteria for the study included all pediatric patients aged 0-18 years of age presenting for care at the university hospital. 287 total serum samples were collected from the pediatric patient population. 118 (41%) samples were collected via fingerstick method, with the use of the Stat Sampler TM collecting system, from children presenting for routine care and vaccination in well child clinics. The remaining samples were collected from the hospital's clinical chemistry laboratory from left-over venipuncture clinical sampling; including 77 (27%) from inpatient pediatric units, 37 (12%) from pediatric subspecialty clinics, 25 (9%) from the neonatal intensive care, 25 (9%) from pediatric trauma, and 5 (2%) from newborn special care. At the time of collection no information on any symptomatology was collected, as the purpose of the study was to screen for HBoV-specific IgG-antibody representative of previous viral exposure. Both finger stick and venous blood sampling was used as both have been shown to have similar IgG rates in ELISAs, as shown by Vejtorp and Leerhoy [23] .