Natural immune boosting biases pertussis infection estimates in seroprevalence studies.

ABSTRACT: Seroepidemiology has significant potential for uncovering the unreported burden of infectious diseases. However, for diseases without well-defined serological correlates of protection, natural immune boosting-whereby pathogen exposure triggers a detectable immune response without causing a transmissible infection-can complicate the interpretation of serosurveys. This issue is relevant to pertussis, a vaccine-preventable disease that remains a significant public health concern worldwide. Here, we aimed to evaluate the reliability of pertussis serosurveys using a transmission model that tracked the dynamics of pertussis infection, natural immune boosting, and seroprevalence. By fitting this model to seroprevalence data from the late whole-cell pertussis vaccine era in six European countries,

SUBMITTER: Domenech de Celles M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12500921 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature