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Serosurveillance

Serosurveillance is an important component of any comprehensive surveillance system for vaccine preventable diseases. It is the gold standard for measuring immunity in a population, thereby complementing traditional disease surveillance methods.

The national serosurvey program conducted by NCIRS is a valuable national resource for estimating vaccine coverage by population immunity, for immunisation program evaluation and to contribute to disease modelling. The program is conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology (CIDM) at the Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research (ICPMR), Westmead Hospital. Laboratory liaison and collection of sera is managed by CIDM and antigen testing occurs at CIDM. This includes development and refinement of specific assays required for the serosurvey and not available in Australia.

Serosurveys are conducted at approximately 5 yearly intervals by collecting a bank of 7,000-10,000 sera from diagnostic laboratories throughout Australia that receive samples from hospitalised and ambulant persons. The sera collected are residual from specimens submitted for testing that would otherwise have been discarded and ethics approval is obtained for each serosurvey.

In Australia, the first national serosurveys were conducted using sera collected in 1996–1998 and 1999, i.e. either side of the national Measles Control Campaign. Immunity to the following antigens was tested (resulting in 19 publications):

  • measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, diphtheria, tetanus, polio and pertussis

The second serosurvey was conducted using sera collected in 2002 and immunity to the following antigens was tested (resulting in 8 publications):

  • measles, rubella, varicella, hepatitis B, pertussis, meningococcal C, cytomegalovirus and Helicobacter pylori

The third serosurvey is currently being conducted using sera collected in 2007. Antigens being tested include:

  • measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, pertussis, meningococcal C, diphtheria and tetanus.

In addition to routine national serosurveys, NCIRS also conducted an ad hoc serosurvey using sera collected in 2005, to measure immunity to human papillomavirus (HPV) before the introduction of the national immunisation program.

Research Group Coordinator
Helen Quinn
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