Menezes Arthur, Razafimahatratra Solohery Lalaina, Wariri Oghenebrume, Graham Andrea L, Metcalf C Jessica E
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Immunology of Infectious Diseases Unit, Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Trends Microbiol. 2025 Jan 15. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2024.12.006.
Serological studies uniquely strengthen infectious disease surveillance, expanding prevalence estimates to encompass asymptomatic infections, and revealing the otherwise inapparent landscape of immunity, including who is and is not susceptible to infection. They are thus a powerful complement to often incomplete epidemiological and public health measures (administrative measures of vaccination coverage, incidence estimates, etc.). The recent surge in the deployment of serological surveys globally (in part due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic), alongside the development of new assays and new inference methods, means that the time is ripe to interrogate areas to strengthen future serosurveillance efforts. We identify three themes warranting attention: first, expanding the geographical diversity of these studies; second, investing globally in infrastructure for storage of blood samples (biobanking), opening the way to future analyses; and third, establishing protocols to increase data accessibility and to facilitate data usage for current and future studies. We conclude that strengthening serological studies is necessary and achievable through thoughtful sampling design, wide-scale sample storage, and thorough reporting practices.
血清学研究独特地加强了传染病监测，扩大了患病率估计范围以涵盖无症状感染，并揭示了原本不明显的免疫状况，包括谁易感染以及谁不易感染。因此，它们是对往往不完整的流行病学和公共卫生措施（疫苗接种覆盖率的行政措施、发病率估计等）的有力补充。近期全球血清学调查的部署激增（部分原因是新冠疫情），以及新检测方法和新推断方法的发展，意味着现在是审视各领域以加强未来血清学监测工作的成熟时机。我们确定了三个值得关注的主题：第一，扩大这些研究的地理多样性；第二，在全球范围内投资于血液样本储存基础设施（生物样本库），为未来分析开辟道路；第三，建立协议以提高数据可及性，并促进当前和未来研究的数据使用。我们得出结论，通过精心的抽样设计、大规模样本储存和全面的报告做法，加强血清学研究是必要且可行的。
