Antibody against adult diarrhoea rotavirus among healthy adult population in China.

This paper deals with a method of using unknown serum as the first antibody to coat wells of the microtiter plate directly in application of the sandwich ELISA method with double antibodies for the assay of the antibody against adult diarrhoea rotavirus. This method was used for assay of the antibody against adult rotavirus in 1,380 sera of healthy adults obtained from some provinces and cities of China, of which 141 showed a positive result with a total positive rate of 10.2%. The infection rate varied in different regions. In order to confirm the accuracy of these results a blocking test was carried out on 25 positive specimens, and the results revealed that the P/N ratios after blocking were all lower than those before blocking. Seventeen of these 25 positive serum specimens were obtained from rural areas of Qian'an County, Hebei Province where epidemic adult diarrhoea had occurred two years ago. The antibody against adult diarrhoea rotavirus was not detected in 50 adult sera from Xizang Autonomous Region. Only one out of 50 adult sera from Hainan Island was positive for the antibody.