May 1, 2020

Estimating Seroprevalence with Imperfect Serological Tests: A Cutoff-Free Approach

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Testing and Treatment

• Serological tests, which measure antibody responses against pathogens, are useful for retroactively determining the total number of cumulative SARS-CoV-2 infections that have occurred within a population (i.e. seroprevalence). Bouman et al. propose a likelihood-based method for estimating population-level seroprevalence that may overcome the deficits of serological tests for SARS-CoV-2 with low sensitivity. They use simulations to explore the performance of their method, compared to traditional threshold-based measures that dichotomized serological antibody measurements as “positive” or “negative” using a cutoff value.

Bouman et al. (April 30, 2020). Estimating Seroprevalence with Imperfect Serological Tests: A Cutoff-Free Approach. Pre-print downloaded May 1 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.29.068999