Strengthening routine surveillance of infectious diseases is a high priority in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This project supports locally led, integrated multi-pathogen serosurveillance to strengthen data-informed disease control and elimination.
A major challenge for surveillance is the lack of cost-effective point of care diagnostics and the range of samples required for direct detection of pathogens through molecular techniques. Integrated serological surveillance is a complementary approach that can provide a cost-effective laboratory-based solution to strengthening surveillance.
Integrated serological surveillance is capable of detecting antibodies to multiple pathogens simultaneously, for diseases including:
Join our project on multi-pathogen serological assays for surveillance.
This project will use bead-based multiplex Luminex® assays capable of measuring antibodies to many antigens from the same sample to optimise and validate a fit-for-purpose multi-pathogen serological assay for use in Papua New Guinea. This will be conducted using existing cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys that have been conducted in areas of Papua New Guinea where endemic or epidemic transmission of these pathogens coexists.
The incorporation of integrated multi-pathogen serosurveillance into an ongoing program of febrile illness sentinel surveillance will strengthen the breadth and quality of data available for programmatic decision-making.
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