Inferring Influenza Infection Attack Rate from Seroprevalence Data

PLoS Pathogens

Daniel K. W. Chu¹  Ranawaka A. P. M. Perera¹  Benjamin J. Cowling²  Kathy Leung²  Joseph T. Wu²  J. S. Malik Peiris²  Ivan F. N. Hung³  Gabriel M. Leung⁴  Yu-Lung Lau⁵  Cheuk Kwong Lee⁶  Che Kit Lin⁶  Su-Vui Lo⁷ 

[1] Centre of Influenza Research and School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China;Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China;Department of Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China;Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China;Food and Health Bureau, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China;Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, Hospital Authority, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China;Hospital Authority, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China

关键词: Influenza;    Hong Kong;    Serology;    Age groups;    School closures;    Cell-mediated immunity;    Hospitalizations;    Infectious disease epidemiology;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1004054

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Seroprevalence survey is the most practical method for accurately estimating infection attack rate (IAR) in an epidemic such as influenza. These studies typically entail selecting an arbitrary titer threshold for seropositivity (e.g. microneutralization [MN] 1∶40) and assuming the probability of seropositivity given infection (infection-seropositivity probability, ISP) is 100% or similar to that among clinical cases. We hypothesize that such conventions are not necessarily robust because different thresholds may result in different IAR estimates and serologic responses of clinical cases may not be representative. To illustrate our hypothesis, we used an age-structured transmission model to fully characterize the transmission dynamics and seroprevalence rises of 2009 influenza pandemic A/H1N1 (pdmH1N1) during its first wave in Hong Kong. We estimated that while 99% of pdmH1N1 infections became MN1∶20 seropositive, only 72%, 62%, 58% and 34% of infections among age 3–12, 13–19, 20–29, 30–59 became MN1∶40 seropositive, which was much lower than the 90%–100% observed among clinical cases. The fitted model was consistent with prevailing consensus on pdmH1N1 transmission characteristics (e.g. initial reproductive number of 1.28 and mean generation time of 2.4 days which were within the consensus range), hence our ISP estimates were consistent with the transmission dynamics and temporal buildup of population-level immunity. IAR estimates in influenza seroprevalence studies are sensitive to seropositivity thresholds and ISP adjustments which in current practice are mostly chosen based on conventions instead of systematic criteria. Our results thus highlighted the need for reexamining conventional practice to develop standards for analyzing influenza serologic data (e.g. real-time assessment of bias in ISP adjustments by evaluating the consistency of IAR across multiple thresholds and with mixture models), especially in the context of pandemics when robustness and comparability of IAR estimates are most needed for informing situational awareness and risk assessment. The same principles are broadly applicable for seroprevalence studies of other infectious disease outbreaks.

【 授权许可】

CC BY