Serological Testing for Assessing the Seroprevalence of Acute Respiratory Infections: a systematic review

Question

In recent times, serological testing has been an important and well-established method to detect and track acute respiratory infections (ARI) in the infection epidemiological population monitoring above all as an important addition to the reporting figures and symptom-based surveillance.

This systematic review aims a comprehensive overview, systematically examining the current evidence on the suitability and applicability of seroprevalence assessments for the ARI pathogens RSV, Influenza, and SARS-CoV-2 to evaluate real infection rates and on the definition of qualitative and quantitative serological changes that can detect an infection. In addition, the review asseses the extend to which serological testing can identify breakthrough infections after a vaccination or a previous infection and considering the respective seasonal dynamics of an ARI pathogen.

Methods

The search was conducted on PubMed® platform, with the following pre-determined search terms: RSV, respiratory syncytial virus, Influenza, SARS-CoV-2, seroconversion, seroprevalence, seroepidemiology, and infection rate. Publications that met the following criteria were included: English-speaking, human species as the main study collective. After screening the titles regarding suitability, the abstracts and the full texts of the publications deemed relevant were screened accordingly. The selected studies were then evaluated, and the results comparatively assembled.

Results

The initial search for seroprevalance assessments on RSV yielded 107 results. Respectively, the search for SARS-CoV-2 led to 2,889, the search for Influenza to 1,638 results. The complete results of the evidence screening process and the consequent evaluation will be presented at the conference.

Conclusions

The ongoing screening process has so far resulted in the inclusion of a systematic review covering seroprevalence studies regarding RSV infections. Therefore, the results presented and discussed at the conference will focus on the evidence on seroprevalence concerning Influenza and SARS-CoV-2.