Force of Infection and Seroprevalence Workshop

The Force of Infection and Seroprevalence Workshop was organised by Ilaria Dorigatti, Chia-Chen Chang and Clare McCormack through a collaboration between the DeZi Network, Imperial College London and the National Environment Agency (NEA), Singapore. The workshop was held on 16 June 2026 as a side event of the 9th Asia Dengue Summit.

The workshop brought together researchers, epidemiologists, surveillance practitioners and public-health institutions from across Asia and Africa to explore how serological data can be used to reconstruct historical transmission intensity, estimate force of infection and characterise population immunity to dengue and Zika viruses. Participants were introduced to practical approaches for analysing age-stratified seroprevalence data and applying force-of-infection models to support disease burden estimation, surveillance activities and evidence-based public-health decision-making.

Through a combination of lectures, worked examples and practical training exercises, the workshop aimed to strengthen analytical capacity across participating countries and promote harmonised approaches for the design, analysis and interpretation of arbovirus seroepidemiological studies. The methods discussed form an important component of DeZi's multi-country studies investigating dengue and Zika transmission dynamics across Africa and Asia and support the generation of comparable evidence to inform surveillance, preparedness and intervention strategies.