Acute Febrile Illness Surveillance for Estimating Population Immunity, Dominican Republic, 2021

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Immunology
• Public Health Surveillance

Background:

• Accurate estimation of population immunity is crucial for guiding public health interventions.
• Traditional methods like household surveys can be resource-intensive and time-consuming.
• Developing timely and scalable methods for monitoring population immunity is a key challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the utility of acute febrile illness (AFI) surveillance systems for estimating population immunity.
• To compare antibody levels and inferred population protection derived from AFI surveillance data with those from traditional household surveys.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a study in the Dominican Republic.
• Collected and analyzed serum samples from individuals within the AFI surveillance system.
• Compared antibody levels and calculated inferred protection against relevant pathogens using data from surveillance and a concurrent household survey.

Main Results:

• Antibody levels in samples from AFI surveillance closely mirrored those from household survey serum samples.
• Inferred population protection estimates were consistent between the two data sources.
• Demonstrated a strong correlation between immunity estimates derived from surveillance and surveys.

Conclusions:

• Acute febrile illness surveillance platforms can provide timely and accurate estimates of population immunity.
• These surveillance systems offer a scalable and potentially more efficient approach for monitoring population-level protection compared to traditional surveys.
• Findings support the integration of serological assessments into AFI surveillance for enhanced public health decision-making.