@article {352486,
	title = {Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection in Chinese children: a retrospective study of age-specific prevalence},
	journal = {PLoS One},
	volume = {9},
	number = {6},
	year = {2014},
	month = {2014},
	pages = {e99857},
	abstract = {BACKGROUND: Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is a globally prevalent herpesvirus associated with infectious mononucleosis and many malignancies. The survey on EBV prevalence appears to be important to study EBV-related diseases and determine when to administer prophylactic vaccine. The purpose of this retrospective study was to collect baseline information about the prevalence of EBV infection in Chinese children.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDING: We collected 1778 serum samples from healthy children aged 0 to 10, who were enrolled in conventional health and nutrition examinations without any EBV-related symptom in 2012 and 2013 in North China (n = 973) and South China (n = 805). We detected four EBV-specific antibodies, i.e., anti-VCA-IgG and IgM, anti-EBNA-IgG and anti-EA-IgG, by ELISA, representing all of the phases of EBV infection. The overall EBV seroprevalence in samples from North and South China were 80.78\% and 79.38\% respectively. The EBV seropositivity rates dropped slightly at age 2, and then increased gradually with age. The seroprevalence became stabilized at over 90\% after age 8. In this study, the seroprevalence trends between North and South China showed no difference (P>0.05), and the trends of average antibody concentrations were similar as well (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: EBV seroprevalence became more than 50\% before age 3 in Chinese children, and exceed 90\% after age 8. This study can be helpful to study the relationship between EBV and EBV-associated diseases, and supportive to EBV vaccine development and implementation.},
	keywords = {Antibody Specificity, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Child, Child, Preschool, China, Demography, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Epstein-Barr Virus Infections, Female, Herpesvirus 4, Human, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Male, Prevalence, Retrospective Studies, Seroepidemiologic Studies},
	issn = {1932-6203},
	doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0099857},
	author = {Xiong, Geng and Zhang, Bo and Huang, Mu-yun and Zhou, Hufeng and Chen, Li-zhen and Feng, Qi-sheng and Luo, Xi and Lin, Hui-jia and Zeng, Yi-Xin}
}
