High anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody seroprevalence in healthcare workers in an Irish university teaching hospital
| Autor: | Caroline Murray, Alex Reid, Gerard Boran, Deborah Ennis, Phyllis Reilly, Anna Rose Prior, Ann Leonard, Meghan O' Brien, Gillian Maguire, Ana Rakovac |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
medicine.medical_specialty Universities Health Personnel Population Seroprevalence 030501 epidemiology Antibodies Viral Asymptomatic Young Adult 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Seroepidemiologic Studies Internal medicine Pandemic Health care Humans Medicine 030212 general & internal medicine Hospitals Teaching education Pandemics Antibody Subclinical infection education.field_of_study SARS-CoV-2 business.industry Transmission (medicine) COVID-19 General Medicine Phlebotomy Healthcare worker RNA Viral Original Article medicine.symptom 0305 other medical science business |
| Zdroj: | Irish Journal of Medical Science |
| ISSN: | 1863-4362 0021-1265 |
| Popis: | Introduction Healthcare workers are at very high risk for SARS-CoV-2 exposure and infection. This study evaluated anti-SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in healthcare workers in a tertiary care hospital and then correlated seroprevalence with confirmed or suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection in this population since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method The study was approved by our institution’s Joint Research Ethics Committee in June 2020. All volunteers were provided with a consent form, an information leaflet and a questionnaire on the day before phlebotomy. Serum samples were collected from 1176 participants over a 3-month period and analysed using the Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 assay (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany) which detects total antibodies against the nucleocapsid protein of SARs-COV-2. Results Overall anti-SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among participating healthcare workers was 17.9%. The rate of confirmed infection by real-time polymerase chain reaction molecular testing prior to participation was 12.2%. Of 211 participants who had a reactive antibody test result, 37% did not have COVID-19 infection confirmed at any point prior to participation in this study, either having had a swab which did not detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA or having never been tested. Seropositivity was the highest (30%) in the youngest quintile of age (20–29 years old). Staff with more patient contact had a higher seroprevalence of 19.5% compared to 13.4% in staff with less patient contact. Conclusion This study demonstrates that a substantial proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infections in healthcare workers may be asymptomatic or subclinical and thus potentially represent a significant transmission risk to colleagues and patients. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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