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About the Authors:
Benjamin F. Arnold
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6105-7295
Mark J. van der Laan
Affiliation: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
Alan E. Hubbard
Affiliation: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
Cathy Steel
Affiliation: Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
Joseph Kubofcik
Affiliation: Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
Katy L. Hamlin
Affiliation: Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Delynn M. Moss
Affiliation: Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Thomas B. Nutman
Affiliation: Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
Jeffrey W. Priest
Affiliation: Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Patrick J. Lammie
Affiliations Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America, Neglected Tropical Diseases Support Center, Task Force for Global Health, Decatur, Georgia, United States of AmericaAbstract
Background
Serological antibody levels are a sensitive marker of pathogen exposure, and advances in multiplex assays have created enormous potential for large-scale, integrated infectious disease surveillance. Most methods to analyze antibody measurements reduce quantitative antibody levels to seropositive and seronegative groups, but this can be difficult for many pathogens and may provide lower resolution information than quantitative levels. Analysis methods have predominantly maintained a single disease focus, yet integrated surveillance platforms would benefit from methodologies that work across diverse pathogens included in multiplex assays.
Methods/Principal findings
We developed an approach to measure changes in transmission from quantitative antibody levels that can be applied to diverse pathogens of global importance. We compared age-dependent immunoglobulin G curves in repeated cross-sectional surveys between populations with differences in...