An in-house prepared M. furfur antigen was used to carry out a seroprevalence study in an urban population in Malaysia by indirect immunofluorescence assay. Of the 800 serum samples from all ages screened, 738 samples were positive for M. furfur specific IgG, giving an overall seropositive rate of 92.3%. There was no significant difference in the seropositive rates among the different gender group and races. However, there was a statistical significant difference in the seropositive rate among different age groups with a lower rate (73%) for the age group 5 years old and below, which increased rapidly to 99% for the 16 to 20 years old age group but declined slightly for the oldest age group. The degree of seropositivity, which semi-quantitatively reflect the anti-M. furfur specific IgG titre, did not show any significant difference among the gender and racial groups. On the other hand, there was a significant difference in the degree of seropositivity among the various age groups, with the 16 to 20 years old age group having the highest antibody titre and the extreme of age groups having the lower antibody titre.
Age Group Unspecified ; seconds ; Upper case emm ; Malaysia ; Old-age

OBJECTIVEWe aimed to examine the current developments and challenges confronted by old age security in rural China.

DATA SOURCESThis study is based on the data from PubMed, Elsevier, Wiley, EBSCO, EMBASE, SCI Expanded, ProQuest, Google, and CNKI which is the most informative database in Chinese.

STUDY SELECTIONArticles were selected with the search terms "rural", "China", "old", "older", or "elder", "elderly", or "aged", "aging", "security", "culture", "value", "medical insurance" or "community based medical insurance" or "cooperative medical scheme". Related websites and yearbooks were searched as well.

RESULTSThe socio-economic development has made the burden of traditional care for the rural elderly heavier than ever, and new challenges are emerging in rural communities, such as poor economic, deteriorating natural environment and health crisis.

CONCLUSIONSThe governments should improve the scale and caliber of rural old age security and strengthen regulations with great efforts in developing the rural economy and protecting the natural environment of rural communities.

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; China ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Old Age Assistance ; legislation & jurisprudence ; statistics & numerical data ; trends ; Rural Population ; statistics & numerical data