Prevalence of serum antibodies to toxic-shock-syndrome-toxin-1 and to staphylococcal enterotoxins A, B and C in West-Germany.

Sera of 152 healthy blood donors and 43 infants 9 to 12 months of age were tested for serum antibodies to TSST-1 and staphylococcal enterotoxins A, B and C by a microtiter ELISA assay. Only 50% of the adult population had detectable antibody-titers to enterotoxin A, whereas 80% to enterotoxin C and 90% to enterotoxin B and TSST-1, which is very similar to the prevalence of TSST-1 antibodies among USA-residents. The "protective" titer of TSST-1-antibodies can be estimated to be 1:100 in the test system used by comparison with anti-TSST-1-titers in five acute phase sera from confirmed menstrual TSS cases.