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Serosurvey Toolkit

For those involved in the design and implementation of serosurveys, we recommend reviewing the set of toolkit materials included with each module. These materials, compiled from serosurveys that were implemented over the past several years, are designed to provide examples of how you might structure materials for your serosurvey but are not necessarily considered “standard”. Given that every serosurvey will have different objectives, and take place in unique contexts, we described characteristics of the specific serosurveys for which these materials were developed (see table below). In developing your own serosurvey materials, we hope you find it useful to refer to this toolkit for ideas or suggestions on how to structure or what to include in your serosurvey materials. You should identify which tools are most relevant to your planned serosurvey and adapt the materials to the specific procedures and content required for your serosurvey.

Characteristics of the serosurveys for which the toolkit materials were developed

 

Nested serosurvey Community-based serosurvey Biorepository serosurvey
Study design
  • House-to-house  serosurvey collecting new specimens
  • Subnational level (province)
  • Serosurvey nested within a post-campaign vaccination coverage survey
  • House-to-house serosurvey collecting new specimens
  • Subnational level (district)
  • Stand-alone serosurveys conducted before and after a vaccination campaign
  • Serosurvey using existing specimens in a biorepository established from a separate serosurvey
  • National level
Specimen collected
  • Primary: Dried blood spot (DBS) from finger prick (Whatman 903 cards)
  • Subset for comparison: liquid capillary blood
  • Primary: Venous blood (whole blood)
  • Subset for comparison: DBS (HemaSpot HF devices)
  • Primary: Venous blood (plasma)
  • Subset for comparison: DBS samples
Laboratory testing
  • Measles & Rubella IgG
  • Commercial EIA kit (Enzygnost)
  • All activities conducted at a central laboratory
  • DBS elution required
  • Measles & Rubella IgG
  • Commercial EIA kit (Euroimmun)
  • Testing conducted at central laboratory after processing at intermediary laboratories
  • Measles & Rubella IgG
  • Commercial EIA kit (Euroimmun)
  • All testing conducted at two central laboratories
Age groups >9 months old Children 9 months to 15 years of age and women of childbearing age 0-49 years of age
Country Zambia India Zambia
Additional Resources
Serosurveillance Summit (March 2023):