CGPH FACULTY: John Colford
DATE OF PUBLICATION: April 2014
REGION: Latin America
REFERENCE: Arnold BF, Priest JW, Hamlin KL, Moss DM, Colford JM Jr, Lammie PJ. Serological measures of malaria transmission in haiti: comparison of longitudinal and cross-sectional methods. PLoS One. 2014 Apr 1;9(4):e93684. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093684. eCollection 2014
SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: Efforts to monitor malaria transmission increasingly use cross-sectional surveys to estimate transmission intensity from seroprevalence data using malarial antibodies. To date, seroconversion rates estimated from cross-sectional surveys have not been compared to rates estimated in prospective cohorts. Our objective was to compare seroconversion rates estimated in a prospective cohort with those from a cross-sectional survey in a low-transmission population. The estimation of seroconversion rates using cross-sectional data is a widespread and generalizable problem for many infectious diseases that can be measured using antibody titers. The consistency between these two estimates lends credibility to model-based estimates of malaria seroconversion rates using cross-sectional surveys. This study also demonstrates the utility of including malaria antibody measures in multiplex assays alongside targets for vaccine coverage and other neglected tropical diseases, which together could comprise an integrated, large-scale serological surveillance platform.
ACCESS: Link to Pubmed