Does school reopening affect SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among school-age children in Milan?
Barcellini et al.
The finding, in our words
Seroprevalence among Milan schoolchildren rose from 2.8% in September 2020 to 12.5% in January 2021, with an overall seroconversion rate of 10% and no difference between those attending school in person and those switched to remote learning, suggesting schools reflected rather than amplified community transmission.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
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.
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.
Mimiaga et al., Sexually transmitted infections (paywalled) · source ↗
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.
Frequent dried blood spot sampling detected early changes in beta-cell function more effectively than mixed-meal tolerance tests or urine ratios, supporting its potential as a decentralised monitoring tool for clinical trials.
Dunseath et al., Diabetes care (paywalled) · source ↗
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.
Gurung et al., AIDS and behavior (paywalled) · source ↗