To increase our knowledge about bats as a potential source of zoonotic viruses in the Netherlands, and to support evidence-based development and evaluation of prevention and management tools against (in)direct virus transmission from bats to humans…
ID
Source
Brief title
Condition
- Other condition
Synonym
Health condition
inventeristie mogelijkheid van virusoverdracht van vleermuis naar mens
Research involving
Sponsors and support
Intervention
Outcome measures
Primary outcome
We will develop serological assays that detect exposure to identified bat
viruses.
We will test 300 human sera. With this quantity we can detect an antibody
prevalence of over 1%, at the 95% confidence interval.
The results will support assessments on the needs for and the development of
preventive interventions against virus transmission from bats to humans.
Secondary outcome
- Reported level of bat contact (data coming from the questionnaire) and
presence of antibodies against bat viruses (data coming from serology study)
will be related to each other, to profession, ethnical background, gender and
age, to identify possible risk factors. This will only be possible if
statistically sound, which depends on the results of the questionnaire and
serology study.
- potentially, clinical signs after contact with a bat, and relatedness of the
clinical signs to seroconversion in the volunteer
Background summary
The emergence of infectious diseases such as Ebola viral disease, Zika virus
disease, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is an important public
health problem. While the risk of such emergence events in developed countries
like the Netherlands is small, both public concern and potential health and
economic consequences are large. The majority of (newly) emerging diseases come
from wildlife, either directly or via intermediate hosts.
Study objective
To increase our knowledge about bats as a potential source of zoonotic viruses
in the Netherlands, and to support evidence-based development and evaluation of
prevention and management tools against (in)direct virus transmission from bats
to humans.
We have three research questions to reach this objective:
1. What is the range of viruses present in prioritized bat species, and how
does this vary in time, place, and breeding cycle?
2. What is the evidence for transmission of key viruses from bats to humans and
cats (as intermediate hosts)?
3. What is the level of contact between bats and people and what is their risk
perception and knowledge of bats?
This METC only involves part of research question 2 and 3. In the subsequent
sections we will only go into research question 2 and 3: the collection of
human sera and the questionnaire.
Study design
The study design for research question 2 is observational, cross-sectional.
Study burden and risks
In general, the burden for the participants is one venous blood sample of 10 mL
and answering a set of questions that will take approximately 20 minutes. We
will not ask the participant to travel, as blood samples are taken during an
annual meeting where the participants gather anyway. The exception to the above
is when the participant is involved via a visit to the local GGD, after a bat
exposure. These participants are asked for two venous blood samples, of 10 mL
each: one directly after the exposure, and one 4 weeks post exposure. In
addition to the set of questions mentioned above, we ask these participants to
report fever within the 4 weeks post exposure period.
Wytemaweg 80
Rotterdam 3015 CN
NL
Wytemaweg 80
Rotterdam 3015 CN
NL
Listed location countries
Age
Inclusion criteria
(regular) contact with bats
Exclusion criteria
none
Design
Recruitment
Followed up by the following (possibly more current) registration
No registrations found.
Other (possibly less up-to-date) registrations in this register
No registrations found.
In other registers
| Register | ID |
|---|---|
| CCMO | NL64612.078.18 |