biostudies-literatureVinh DNWellcome Trust6680https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC8602397biostudies-literatureUnknown12(1)The relationship between age and seroprevalence can be used to estimate the annual attack rate of an infectious disease. For pathogens with multiple serologically distinct strains, there is a need to describe composite exposure to an antigenically variable group of pathogens. In this study, we assay 24,402 general-population serum samples, collected in Vietnam between 2009 to 2015, for antibodies to eleven human influenza A strains. We report that a principal components decomposition of antibody titer data gives the first principal component as an appropriate surrogate for seroprevalence; this results in annual attack rate estimates of 25.6% (95% CI: 24.1% - 27.1%) for subtype H3 and 16.0% (95% CI: 14.7% - 17.3%) for subtype H1. The remaining principal components separate the strains by seNature communicationsAge-seroprevalence curves for the multi-strain structure of influenza A virus.PMC8602397089276098511/Z/12/Z089276/B/09/7097465/B/11/ZQuan TMThwaites GENguyen TDVy NHTThanh NTLClapham HEde Bruin EThao TTNTodd SChoisy MThai PQLien NTNBoni MFHong TTKAnh PHNhat NTDHa NTHSimmons CPChau NVVPhuong HTKoopmans MVinh DNfalseAge-seroprevalence curves for the multi-strain structure of influenza A virus.The relationship between age and seroprevalence can be used to estimate the annual attack rate of an infectious disease. For pathogens with multiple serologically distinct strains, there is a need to describe composite exposure to an antigenically variable group of pathogens. In this study, we assay 24,402 general-population serum samples, collected in Vietnam between 2009 to 2015, for antibodies to eleven human influenza A strains. We report that a principal components decomposition of antibody titer data gives the first principal component as an appropriate surrogate for seroprevalence; this results in annual attack rate estimates of 25.6% (95% CI: 24.1% - 27.1%) for subtype H3 and 16.0% (95% CI: 14.7% - 17.3%) for subtype H1. The remaining principal components separate the strains by se2021-01-01T00:00:00Z2021 Nov2026-07-16T13:58:44.991Z2022-02-11T13:26:29.986ZS-EPMC86023973479523910.1038/s41467-021-26948-8