Does school reopening affect SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among school-age children in Milan?

In a Ugandan cohort, 96% of participants successfully collected at least 16 of 24 requested at-home dried blood spots, with strong correlation (R=0.93) between parasite RNA detected in self-collected spots and venous blood. The method was well tolerated, indicating self-collected DBS can reliably support decentralised malaria surveillance in endemic settings.

Feasibility of community at-home dried blood spot collection combined with pooled reverse transcription PCR as a viable and convenient method for malaria epidemiology studies — Hergott et al., Malaria journal · source ↗

• blood
• dried
• dbs
• self-collection
• venous-agreement
• acceptability
• pediatric
• serology

The study found that self-collection of dried blood spots and other samples using at-home kits was a useful and cost-effective method for screening a large cohort for sexually transmitted infections outside a clinic. This demonstrates the feasibility of decentralised, patient-centric sampling for population-level infectious disease surveillance.

Prevalence of chlamydial, gonococcal and syphilis positivity by anatomical site and sex via self-collected biospecimens using at-home testing kits among a large and diverse cohort of men and women enrolled in the MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS) in the USA — Mimiaga et al., Sexually transmitted infections (paywalled) · source ↗

• blood
• sti
• dbs
• self-collection
• dried
• serology
• bd-microtainer
• urine

The study validated a semi-quantitative protocol for Epstein-Barr virus serology using dried blood spots, demonstrating 98.8% sensitivity and 96.5% specificity compared to paired venous serum samples. The successful validation in a self-sampling cohort confirms the suitability of this patient-centric microsampling approach for large-scale seroprevalence studies and decentralised trials.

A dried blood spot protocol for high-throughput semi-quantitative analysis of Epstein-Barr Virus VCA IgG and EBNA IgG serologies based on the Roche Elecsys system — Rubio-Acero et al., Virology journal · source ↗

• blood
• dried
• capillary
• dbs
• self-collection
• validation
• venous-agreement
• serology

In a pilot mixed-methods study of youth with HIV, mailed HemaSpot-HF kits enabled home-based dried blood spot collection that participants found feasible and acceptable, supporting remote viral load monitoring and a self-management model for decentralised care.

An Examination of Perceptions and Usage of Dried Blood Spot Biosampling Technology for HIV Viral Load Collection Among Youth with HIV — Gurung et al., AIDS and behavior (paywalled) · source ↗

• blood
• dried
• dbs
• self-collection
• acceptability
• dct
• serology

Enhanced visual and textual guidance significantly improved the quality of dried blood spots self-collected by children and adolescents, increasing the proportion of acceptable cards from 47.6% to 86.6%, which supports the feasibility of home sampling for therapeutic drug monitoring.

Optimizing Dried Blood Spot Sampling for Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder — Ringeling et al., Therapeutic drug monitoring · source ↗

• blood
• dried
• dbs
• self-collection
• pediatric
• tdm