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High seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond?

People living in urban slums or informal settlements are among the most vulnerable communities, highly susceptible to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and vulnerable to the consequences of the measures taken to control the spread of the virus. Fear and stigma related to infection, mistr...

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Autores principales: George, Carolin Elizabeth, Inbaraj, Leeberk Raja, Chandrasingh, Sindhulina, de Witte, L. P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7884660/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33536108
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0950268821000273
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author George, Carolin Elizabeth
Inbaraj, Leeberk Raja
Chandrasingh, Sindhulina
de Witte, L. P.
author_facet George, Carolin Elizabeth
Inbaraj, Leeberk Raja
Chandrasingh, Sindhulina
de Witte, L. P.
author_sort George, Carolin Elizabeth
collection PubMed
description People living in urban slums or informal settlements are among the most vulnerable communities, highly susceptible to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and vulnerable to the consequences of the measures taken to control the spread of the virus. Fear and stigma related to infection, mistrust between officials and the population, the often-asymptomatic nature of the disease is likely to lead to under-reporting. We conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India 3 months after the index case and recruited 499 adults (age >18 years). The majority (74.3%) were females and about one-third of the population reported comorbidities. The overall seroprevalence of IgG antibody for COVID-19 was 57.9% (95% CI 53.4–62.3). Age, education, occupation and the presence of reported comorbidities were not associated with seroprevalence (P-value >0.05). Case-to-undetected-infections ratio was 1:195 and infection fatality rate was calculated as 2.94 per 10 000 infections. We estimated seroprevalence of COVID-19 was very high in our study population. The focus in this slum should shift from infection prevention to managing the indirect consequences of the pandemic. We recommend seroprevalence studies in such settings before vaccination to identify the vulnerability of COVID-19 infection to optimise the use of insufficient resources. It is a wake-up call to societies and nations, to dedicate paramount attention to slums into recovery and beyond – to build, restore and maintain health equity for the ‘Health and wellbeing of all’.
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spelling pubmed-78846602021-02-16 High seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond? George, Carolin Elizabeth Inbaraj, Leeberk Raja Chandrasingh, Sindhulina de Witte, L. P. Epidemiol Infect Original Paper People living in urban slums or informal settlements are among the most vulnerable communities, highly susceptible to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and vulnerable to the consequences of the measures taken to control the spread of the virus. Fear and stigma related to infection, mistrust between officials and the population, the often-asymptomatic nature of the disease is likely to lead to under-reporting. We conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India 3 months after the index case and recruited 499 adults (age >18 years). The majority (74.3%) were females and about one-third of the population reported comorbidities. The overall seroprevalence of IgG antibody for COVID-19 was 57.9% (95% CI 53.4–62.3). Age, education, occupation and the presence of reported comorbidities were not associated with seroprevalence (P-value >0.05). Case-to-undetected-infections ratio was 1:195 and infection fatality rate was calculated as 2.94 per 10 000 infections. We estimated seroprevalence of COVID-19 was very high in our study population. The focus in this slum should shift from infection prevention to managing the indirect consequences of the pandemic. We recommend seroprevalence studies in such settings before vaccination to identify the vulnerability of COVID-19 infection to optimise the use of insufficient resources. It is a wake-up call to societies and nations, to dedicate paramount attention to slums into recovery and beyond – to build, restore and maintain health equity for the ‘Health and wellbeing of all’. Cambridge University Press 2021-02-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7884660/ /pubmed/33536108 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0950268821000273 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Paper
George, Carolin Elizabeth
Inbaraj, Leeberk Raja
Chandrasingh, Sindhulina
de Witte, L. P.
High seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond?
title High seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond?
title_full High seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond?
title_fullStr High seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond?
title_full_unstemmed High seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond?
title_short High seroprevalence of COVID-19 infection in a large slum in South India; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond?
title_sort high seroprevalence of covid-19 infection in a large slum in south india; what does it tell us about managing a pandemic and beyond?
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7884660/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33536108
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0950268821000273
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