[New human polyomavirus; BK virus antibody levels in different age groups using the hemagglutination inhibition test]

In this study, 1123 human sera samples obtained from healthy persons belonging to various age groups were tested in order to detect the distribution of antibody levels against the new human polyomavirus, BK. All sera samples were tested by hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test and 881 (78.5%) of those were found to be positive and 242 (21.5%) were negative. The percentage of positivity was 65.3% between the ages of 1 to 5 years, and over 80% in the group aged 6 years or older. Furthermore, between 1 to 10 years of ages HI antibody titers were higher than the older age groups. Our results indicate that antibody to BK virus infections are remarkably frequent in our population and acquisition of BK virus appeared to be common in childhood.