TY - JOUR
T1 - Vaccine Preventable Disease Seroprevalence in a Nationwide Assessment of Timor-Leste (VASINA-TL)
T2 - Study protocol for a population-representative cross-sectional serosurvey
AU - Arkell, Paul
AU - Sheridan, Sarah L.
AU - Martins, Nelson
AU - Tanesi, Maria Y.
AU - Gomes, Nelia
AU - Amaral, Salvador
AU - Oakley, Tessa
AU - Solano, Vanessa
AU - David, Michael
AU - Draper, Anthony D.K.
AU - Sarmento, Nevio
AU - da Silva, Endang
AU - Alves, Lucsendar
AU - Freitas, Carlito
AU - Machado, Filipe de Neri
AU - Gusmão, Celia
AU - da Costa Barreto, Ismael
AU - Fancourt, Nicholas S.S.
AU - Macartney, Kristine
AU - Yan, Jennifer
AU - Francis, Joshua R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government (Complex Grant Agreement Number 75889).
Publisher Copyright:
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
PY - 2023/5/18
Y1 - 2023/5/18
N2 - INTRODUCTION: Historic disruption in health infrastructure combined with data from a recent vaccine coverage survey suggests there are likely significant immunity gaps to vaccine preventable diseases and high risk of outbreaks in Timor-Leste. Community-based serological surveillance is an important tool to augment understanding of population-level immunity achieved through vaccine coverage and/or derived from prior infection. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This national population-representative serosurvey will take a three-stage cluster sample and aims to include 5600 individuals above 1 year of age. Serum samples will be collected by phlebotomy and analysed for measles IgG, rubella IgG, SARS-CoV-2 antispike protein IgG, hepatitis B surface antibody and hepatitis B core antigen using commercially available chemiluminescent immunoassays or ELISA. In addition to crude prevalence estimates and to account for differences in Timor-Leste's age structure, stratified age-standardised prevalence estimates will be calculated, using Asia in 2013 as the standard population. Additionally, this survey will derive a national asset of serum and dried blood spot samples which can be used for further investigation of infectious disease seroepidemiology and/or validation of existing and novel serological assays for infectious diseases. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval has been obtained from the Research Ethics and Technical Committee of the Instituto Nacional da Saúde, Timor-Leste and the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Northern Territory Department of Health and Menzies School of Health Research, Australia. Co-designing this study with Timor-Leste's Ministry-of-Health and other relevant partner organisations will allow immediate translation of findings into public health policy, which may include changes to routine immunisation service delivery and/or plans for supplementary immunisation activities.
AB - INTRODUCTION: Historic disruption in health infrastructure combined with data from a recent vaccine coverage survey suggests there are likely significant immunity gaps to vaccine preventable diseases and high risk of outbreaks in Timor-Leste. Community-based serological surveillance is an important tool to augment understanding of population-level immunity achieved through vaccine coverage and/or derived from prior infection. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This national population-representative serosurvey will take a three-stage cluster sample and aims to include 5600 individuals above 1 year of age. Serum samples will be collected by phlebotomy and analysed for measles IgG, rubella IgG, SARS-CoV-2 antispike protein IgG, hepatitis B surface antibody and hepatitis B core antigen using commercially available chemiluminescent immunoassays or ELISA. In addition to crude prevalence estimates and to account for differences in Timor-Leste's age structure, stratified age-standardised prevalence estimates will be calculated, using Asia in 2013 as the standard population. Additionally, this survey will derive a national asset of serum and dried blood spot samples which can be used for further investigation of infectious disease seroepidemiology and/or validation of existing and novel serological assays for infectious diseases. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval has been obtained from the Research Ethics and Technical Committee of the Instituto Nacional da Saúde, Timor-Leste and the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Northern Territory Department of Health and Menzies School of Health Research, Australia. Co-designing this study with Timor-Leste's Ministry-of-Health and other relevant partner organisations will allow immediate translation of findings into public health policy, which may include changes to routine immunisation service delivery and/or plans for supplementary immunisation activities.
KW - Diagnostic microbiology
KW - EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDIES
KW - Epidemiology
KW - Public health
KW - STATISTICS & RESEARCH METHODS
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159768521&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071381
DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-071381
M3 - Article
C2 - 37202138
AN - SCOPUS:85159768521
SN - 2044-6055
VL - 13
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - BMJ Open
JF - BMJ Open
IS - 5
M1 - e071381
ER -