AI Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to determine the rate of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity among blood donors in Rhode Island, utilizing various antibody testing methods due to the lack of prior data on population seroconversion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Approximately 0.6% of blood donors tested positive for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 during April-May 2020, coinciding with the peak of daily new COVID-19 cases in the region.
- The findings suggest that actual infection rates may be low within this population, and that certain antibody tests can effectively assess seroprevalence, indicating a need for further research using validated tests for more accurate results.
Article Abstract
Background: Epidemic projections and public health policies addressing Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 have been implemented without data reporting on the seroconversion of the population since scalable antibody testing has only recently become available.
Methods: We measured the percentage of severe acute respiratory syndrome- Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) seropositive individuals from 2008 blood donors drawn in the state of Rhode Island (RI). We utilized multiple antibody testing platforms, including lateral flow immunoassays (LFAs), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and high throughput serological assays (HTSAs). To estimate seroprevalence, we utilized the Bayesian statistical method to adjust for sensitivity and specificity of the commercial tests used.
Results: We report than an estimated seropositive rate of RI blood donors of approximately 0.6% existed in April-May of 2020. Daily new case rates peaked in RI in late April 2020. We found HTSAs and LFAs were positively correlated with ELISA assays to detect antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 in blood donors.
Conclusions: These data imply that seroconversion, and thus infection, is likely not widespread within this population. We conclude that IgG LFAs and HTSAs are suitable to conduct seroprevalence assays in random populations. More studies will be needed using validated serological tests to improve the precision and report the kinetic progression of seroprevalence estimates.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8386143 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-06438-4 | DOI Listing |
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