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  • Seroprevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 among health care workers in a large Spanish reference hospital.

Seroprevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 among health care workers in a large Spanish reference hospital.

Nature communications (2020-07-10)
Alberto L Garcia-Basteiro, Gemma Moncunill, Marta Tortajada, Marta Vidal, Caterina Guinovart, Alfons Jiménez, Rebeca Santano, Sergi Sanz, Susana Méndez, Anna Llupià, Ruth Aguilar, Selena Alonso, Diana Barrios, Carlo Carolis, Pau Cisteró, Eugenia Chóliz, Angeline Cruz, Silvia Fochs, Chenjerai Jairoce, Jochen Hecht, Montserrat Lamoglia, Mikel J Martínez, Robert A Mitchell, Natalia Ortega, Nuria Pey, Laura Puyol, Marta Ribes, Neus Rosell, Patricia Sotomayor, Sara Torres, Sarah Williams, Sonia Barroso, Anna Vilella, José Muñoz, Antoni Trilla, Pilar Varela, Alfredo Mayor, Carlota Dobaño
PMID32641730
ABSTRACT

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.