Seroprevalence and characteristics of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in workers with non-specific disease symptoms

Abstract

Background The population-based serosurveys are essential for estimating Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) burden and monitoring the progression of this pandemic. We aimed to assess the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and potential predictors of seropositivity in the Pakistani population. Methodology This population-based seroprevalence study includes consenting subjects from the workplaces (factories, corporates, restaurants, media houses, schools, banks, and hospitals) located in the urban areas of Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar, and Quetta. We analyzed each subject's serum sample for SARS-CoV-2-IgM and/or IgG antibodies using UNIPER IgG/IgM Rapid COVID-19 Testing Kit. The subject's demographics, exposure history, and symptoms experienced (in last 7 days) were also obtained. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. Results The overall seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was 16.0% (2810/17,764). The total antibody seropositivity was higher in males than females (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.110–1.340). The symptomatic subjects had 2.18 times higher odds of IgG seropositivity while 1.2 times for IgM seropositivity than the asymptomatic subjects. The multivariable logistic regression model showed that the odds of SARS-CoV-2 total antibody seroprevalence were affected by the number of dependents (OR = 1.077; 95% CI 1.054–1.099), apparent symptomology (OR = 1.288; 95% CI 1.011–1.643), close unprotected contact with a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 (OR 2.470; 95% CI 2.164–2.819), traveling history (last 14 days) (OR = 1.537; 95% CI 1.234–1.914) and proximity with someone who traveled (OR = 1.534; 95% CI 1.241–1.896). Conclusion We found a reasonable seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the studied population. Several factors like the number of dependents, apparent symptoms, close unprotected contact with a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19, traveling history, and proximity with someone who traveled are associated with increased odds of SARS-CoV-2 antibody seropositivity.

Serological surveillance reveals a high exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and altered immune response among COVID-19 unvaccinated Cameroonian individuals

“…The overall crude seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 was 96.9%, which is consistent with those reported in other settings such as Chile (97.3%) [13]. In contrast, lower seroprevalence values were recently reported in Portugal (2.7-3.9%), Mozambique (3%), Bosnia and [4,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Differences in study period, SARS-CoV-2 variants, age groups, prevalence of risk factors and/or comorbidities (e.g., obesity, diabetes, hypertension), and COVID-19 vaccine coverage could explain discrepancies between seroprevalence estimates.…”

“…In addition, ageusia was the strongest predictor of IgM seropositivity among the patients. Several studies across COVID-19 burden varying settings also reported the clinical utility of COVID-19 evocating clinical symptoms, or more specifically, fever, anosmia, and ageusia [ 15 , 17 , 18 , 20 , 21 , 45 , 47 ]. Ferreira et al .…”

“…First, the study was conducted among inpatients from seven health facilities in the town of Douala, thereby limiting its generalisability at national level. Second, the study did not capture all environmental, behavioural, and socio-demographic characteristics of patients (e.g., size of household, socio-economic status) that could have impacted the risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity [ 16 , 18 , 47 , 62 – 64 ]. Third, the small number of patients with comorbidities such as heart failure limited stratification analyses to identify possible confounding variables.…”

“…In addition, ageusia was the strongest predictor of IgM seropositivity among the patients. Several studies across COVID-19 burden varying settings also reported the clinical utility of COVID-19 evocating clinical symptoms, or more specifically, fever, anosmia, and ageusia [15,17,18,20,21,45,47]. Ferreira et al recently reported that anosmia/dysgeusia was the most clinically discriminant symptoms in Portuguese municipal workers, with a PPV and specificity of 52.2% and 99.3%, respectively.…”

Restaurants’ Solvency in Portugal during COVID-19

“…The Statistics Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) software (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) was employed to examine the data to obtain descriptive results and for hypothesis testing. Several authors also used the same software in their study (Brîndescu-Olariu 2016;Javed et al 2022;Poon and Low 2005;Siddiqi et al 2022;Zhou et al 2021). First of all, a Paired T-test was used, where solvency was measured before and after the COVID-19 pandemic to analyze whether COVID-19 affected solvency in restaurants.…”