J Infect High SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Prevalence Among Healthcare Workers Exposed to COVID-19 Patients

[tetano]

J Infect


. 2020 Jun 3;S0163-4453(20)30344-3.
doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.05.067. Online ahead of print.
High SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Prevalence Among Healthcare Workers Exposed to COVID-19 Patients


Yuxin Chen ¹ , Xin Tong ² , Jian Wang ² , Weijin Huang ³ , Shengxia Yin ² , Rui Huang ² , Hailong Yang ⁴ , Yong Chen ⁵ , Aijun Huang ¹ , Yong Liu ¹ , Yan Chen ⁶ , Ling Yuan ⁶ , Xiaomin Yan ² , Han Shen ⁷ , Chao Wu ⁸



Affiliations

• PMID: 32504745
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.05.067

Abstract

The seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was examined among 105 healthcare workers (HCWs) exposed to four patients who were laboratory confirmed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. These HCWs were immediately under quarantine for 14 days as soon as they were identified as close contacts. The nasopharyngeal swab samples were collected on the first and 14^th day of the quarantine, while the serum samples were obtained on the 14^th day of the quarantine. With the assay of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and microneutralization assay, 17.14% (18/105) of HCWs were seropositive, while their swab samples were found to be SARS-CoV-2 RNA negative. Risk analysis revealed that wearing face mask could reduce the infection risk (odds ratio [OR], 0.127, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.017, 0.968), while when exposed to COVID-19 patients, doctors might have higher risk of seroconversion (OR, 346.837, 95% CI 8.924, 13479.434), compared with HCWs exposed to colleagues as well as nurses and general service assistants who exposed to patients. Our study revealed that the serological testing is useful for the identification of asymptomatic or subclinical infection of SARS-CoV-2 among close contacts with COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Healthcare workers; Risk factors; SARS-CoV-2; Seroprevalence.