Open AccessNo serological evidence for Zika virus infection and low specificity for anti-Zika virus ELISA in malaria positive individuals among pregnant women from Madagascar in 2010
Author(s) -
Norbert Schwarz,
Eva Mertens,
Doris Winter,
Oumou Maïga-Ascofaré,
Denise Dekker,
Stéphanie Jansen,
Dennis Tappe,
Njary Randriamampioa,
Jürgen May,
Raphaël Rakotozandrindrainy,
Jonas SchmidtChanasit
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0176708
Subject(s) - zika virus , virology , serology , malaria , biology , antibody , virus , medicine , immunology
It was previously reported that a malaria infection may interfere with the specificity of a commercial ELISA test against Zika virus (ZIKV). We analyzed 1,216 plasma samples from healthy, pregnant women collected in two sites in Madagascar in 2010 for ZIKV antibodies using a commercial ELISA and for Plasmodium infection by PCR. This screen revealed six putative ZIKV-positive samples by ELISA. These results could not be confirmed by indirect immunofluorescence assays or virus neutralization tests. Four of these six samples were also positive for P . falciparum . We noted that the frequency of malaria positivity was higher in ZIKV-ELISA positive samples (50% and 100% in the two study sites) than ZIKV-negative samples (17% and 10%, respectively), suggesting that malaria may have led to false ZIKV-ELISA positives.