Anticuerpos séricos antiglicolípido fenólico 1 en personal de centros de salud en contacto con pacientes con enfermedad de Hansen

• Main Authors: Arocha Francisco, Valero Nereida, Hassanhi Manzur, DeWard Jacobus, Rodríguez Zulay, Maldonado Mery, Espinoza Fabiola, Espina Luz Marina
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish
• Published: Universidad del Zulia,Facultad de Medicina,Departamento de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Tropicales 2006
• Subjects: Leprosy; Phenolic Glycolipids–1 antibodies (anti-PGL-1); health center workers; physicians and paramedics; Hansen’s disease; Lepra; anti-glicolípido fenólico-1 (anti-PGL-1); personal de centros de salud; médicos y paramédicos; enfermedad de Hansen; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/02681eba352e4de48a05131268995977

Abstract: Although leprosy is a disease with a wide range of clinical manifestations, there is a lack of knowledge about the presence of carriers of Mycobacterium leprae (M leprae), as well as its transmission and the immunological phenomena that cause the onset of the illness. The glycolipid phenolic-1 antigen (PGL-1) is a M. leprae specific virulence factor, that protects the bacteria against attack by macrophages. Anti PGL-1 antibodies were detected in health center workers (physicians and paramedics) in close contact with leprosy patients to assess their degree of exposition to the bacilli and to determine their usefulness as a risk factor for developing clinical leprosy. Blood samples from 52 leprosy patients contacts and 60 healthy individuals without leprosy patients contact (control group) were collected. The presence of IgM anti-PGL-1 antibodies was determined using the ELISA technique. It was found that 42.3% (22) of the contacts and 5.0% (3) of the healthy individuals without leprosy patient contact were positive for anti PGL-1 antibodies (p <0.05). There were no significant differences related to sex among the studied groups (45.5% vs 41.5%). A higher frequency of sero-positive individuals was found in health centers workers of 36 to 55 years of age, especially medical personnel (73.3%), regardless of years of exposition to the same. A relative risk factor of 1.9 was found in the individuals in close contact with leprosy patients. These results show a higher sero-positive level among health centers workers, especially physicians, which is related to their degree of exposition to the Hansen bacilli. These findings suggest that they have an increased risk of developing clinical leprosy in comparison with the general population. It is recommended that proper basic bio-safety measures be taken as well as follow-up of the sero-positive cases found. Resumen La lepra es una enfermedad con diferentes formas clínicas, sin embargo, es poco el conocimiento que se tiene sobre portadores de Mycobacterium ...