Research and development

Seroepidemiological studies


Population based sero-epidemiological studies have often used convenience samples of residual sera held in diagnostic or reference laboratories.

Following the national Measles Control Campaign in 1998, similar estimates of age-specific immunity to a number of vaccine preventable diseases, including measles, were obtained in 1999 by a large convenience sample conducted by the NCIRS and a 3-stage random cluster sample conducted by VIDRL.

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Laboratory-based surveillance of population immunity, together with outbreak investigations, have now provided evidence of residual measles susceptibility in young adults who, as infants, did not receive the vaccine when it first became available.

The young adult group represents a potential focus of transmission and infection with imported measles virus strains. Evidence from Victoria prompted the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing to implement an immunisation campaign aimed at young adults in 2000.

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