Seroprevalence and serovar distribution of Leptospirosis among healthy people in Vietnam: Results from a multi-center study

Abstract

Abstracts: Objective: This is the first study was conducted to identify the Leptospirosis seroprevalence and serovar distribution among healthy people in different regions in Vietnam. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 600 asymptomatic people in three provinces, representing for the North, the northern Central, and the South of Vietnam from November to December 2019. Each participant was collected a 3 ml venous blood sample by a certified phlebotomist. The microscopic agglutination test (MAT) was applied to determine the leptospiral seroprevalence and serogroups with a cutoff titre for seropositivity of ≥1:100. Results: The overall seroprevalence of leptospiral antibody among healthy Vietnamese people was 9.5%. In total eleven serovars of Leptospira were isolated. The most frequent serovars identified were strains of Hebdomadis (14.0%), Pomona (14.0%), Saxkoebing (12.3%), and Panama (8.8%). Among seropositive cases, farmer was majority, accounting for 63.2%, other jobs accounted from 3 to 8%. Conclusions: Overall seropositivity Leptospirosis among healthy people was relatively high in Vietnam. Diverse serovars of Leptospira have been confirmed to circulate in different regions in the country. Further research need to be conducted to determine factors for high seroprevalence in the population of Vietnam. In addition, health education programs should be considered to prevent leptospirosis among Vietnamese people, especially for farmers, in the future.

Keywords

• Leptospirosis
• Seroprevalence
• Serovars
• Leptospira
• Vietnam