Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (Mar 2021)

Neutralizing Antibodies to Severe Fever With Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus Among Survivors, Non-Survivors and Healthy Residents in South Korea

  • Jeong Rae Yoo,
  • Jae-Yong Kim,
  • Sang Taek Heo,
  • Jihye Kim,
  • Hyeong-Jun Park,
  • Joo-Yeon Lee,
  • Hee-Young Lim,
  • Woo-Jung Park,
  • Nam-Hyuk Cho,
  • Jung Mogg Kim,
  • Jae-Hwan Nam,
  • Keun Hwa Lee

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2021.649570
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

Read online

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), a newly emerging tick-borne viral disease, has been detected in Asia since 2009, and person-to-person transmission is possible. SFTS is characterized by atypical signs, including mild to severe febrile illness similar to that associated with hemorrhagic fever, with 16.2 to 30% mortality. We found that the titers of neutralizing antibodies, play an important role in protective immunity, to SFTS virus (SFTSV) in survivors and healthy residents who lived in endemic areas and who were positive for SFTSV IgG, were higher than those in non-survivor patients. Moreover, the titers were maintained in surviving patients and healthy residents but not in non-surviving patients in South Korea.

Keywords