Telangana begins community-based sero-surveillance to monitor Covid spread

In Telangana, three districts – Jangaon, Kamareddy and Nalgonda have been selected. In each district, 10 villages will be selected randomly, and from each village 40 adults (above the age of 18 years) will be randomly covered for the study.

The surveillance of antibody-based sero-positivity indicates the extent of the spread of infection in the given population and forms the basis for strengthening public health mitigation measures, said a press release from the NIN, adding that household-based studies can generate evidence on the role of asymptomatic and mild infections in transmission.

The study will be carried out in 4 rounds in the same villages (repeat cross-sectional study). The initial survey would serve as a baseline to determine the sero-prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the community, while the subsequent rounds would help to monitor the trends of infection in the community.

Sero-surveillance is strongly recommended for active case finding, testing, and contact tracing as it has been observed that SARS-CoV-2 causes asymptomatic infection. Population-based sero-epidemiological studies will help us to determine the burden of COVID 19 infection at the community level and to monitor the trends in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection, added the press release.

The study’s findings will be useful to guide in designing and implementing appropriate containment measures. The objectives of this sero-surveillance are to estimate and monitor the trend of sero-prevalence for SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population and high burden cities, determine the socio-demographic risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection, and delineate the geographical spread of the infection in the general population and hotspot cities.

The State health department/district authorities will be actively engaged to ensure the smooth operationalisation of the ICMR-NIN surveillance.

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