A. Garcia-Basteiro, G. Moncunill, M. Tortajada, M. Vidal, C. Guinovart, A. Jiménez, R. Santano, S. Sanz, S. Méndez, A. Llupià, R. Aguilar, S. Alonso, D. Barrios, C. Carolis, P. Cisteró, E. Chóliz, A. Cruz, S. Fochs, C. Jairoce, J. Hecht, M. Lamoglia, Mikel J Martínez, R. Mitchell, N. Ortega, N. Pey, L. Puyol, M. Ribes, N. Rosell, P. Sotomayor, S. Torres, Sarah Williams, S. Barroso, A. Vilella, J. Muñoz, A. Trilla, P. Varela, A. Mayor, C. Dobaño
Nature Communications, 2020
Health care workers (HCW) are a high-risk population to acquire SARS-CoV-2 infection from patients or other fellow HCW. This study aims at estimating the seroprevalence against SARS-CoV-2 in a random sample of HCW from a large hospital in Spain. Of the 578 participants recruited from 28 March to 9 April 2020, 54 (9.3%, 95% CI: 7.1–12.0) were seropositive for IgM and/or IgG and/or IgA against SARS-CoV-2. The cumulative prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection (presence of antibodies or past or current positive rRT-PCR) was 11.2% (65/578, 95% CI: 8.8–14.1). Among those with evidence of past or current infection, 40.0% (26/65) had not been previously diagnosed with COVID-19. Here we report a relatively low seroprevalence of antibodies among HCW at the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic in Spain. A large proportion of HCW with past or present infection had not been previously diagnosed with COVID-19, which calls for active periodic rRT-PCR testing in hospital settings. Health care workers (HCW) are a high-risk population for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here, the authors determine seroprevalence against SARS-CoV-2 in HCWs of a large Spanish reference hospital and find a cumulative prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection (presence of antibodies or past or current positive rRT-PCR) of 11%.
Cited by 96 publications.
Field of study: Medicine