Revealing Measles Outbreak Risk With a Nested Immunoglobulin G Serosurvey in Madagascar.

Madagascar reports few measles cases annually and high vaccination campaign coverage. However, the underlying age profile of immunity and risk of a measles outbreak is unknown. We conducted a nested serological survey, testing 1,005 serum samples (collected between November 2013 and December 2015 via Madagascar's febrile rash surveillance system) for measles immunoglobulin G antibody titers.

Benefits and Challenges in Using Seroprevalence Data to Inform Models for Measles and Rubella Elimination.

Background: Control efforts for measles and rubella are intensifying globally. It becomes increasingly important to identify and reach remaining susceptible populations as elimination is approached.

Methods: Serological surveys for measles and rubella can potentially measure susceptibility directly, but their use remains rare.

Protocols for sampling viral sequences to study epidemic dynamics.

With more emphasis being put on global infectious disease monitoring, viral genetic data are being collected at an astounding rate, both within and without the context of a long-term disease surveillance plan. Concurrent with this increase have come improvements to the sophisticated and generalized statistical techniques used for extracting population-level information from genetic sequence data. However, little research has been done on how the collection of these viral sequence data can or does affect the efficacy of the phylogenetic algorithms used to analyse and interpret them.