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SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among Health Care Workers—A Voluntary Screening Study in a Regional Medical Center in Southern Germany

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is associated with a potentially severe clinical manifestation, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and currently poses a worldwide challenge. Health care workers (HCWs) are at the forefront of any health care system and thus especially a...

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Autores principales: Müller, Katharina, Girl, Philipp, Ruhnke, Michaela, Spranger, Mareike, Kaier, Klaus, von Buttlar, Heiner, Dobler, Gerhard, Borde, Johannes P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8068211/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33917840
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18083910
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author Müller, Katharina
Girl, Philipp
Ruhnke, Michaela
Spranger, Mareike
Kaier, Klaus
von Buttlar, Heiner
Dobler, Gerhard
Borde, Johannes P.
author_facet Müller, Katharina
Girl, Philipp
Ruhnke, Michaela
Spranger, Mareike
Kaier, Klaus
von Buttlar, Heiner
Dobler, Gerhard
Borde, Johannes P.
author_sort Müller, Katharina
collection PubMed
description Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is associated with a potentially severe clinical manifestation, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and currently poses a worldwide challenge. Health care workers (HCWs) are at the forefront of any health care system and thus especially at risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection due to their potentially frequent and close contact with patients suffering from COVID-19. Serum samples from 198 HCWs with direct patient contact of a regional medical center and several outpatient facilities were collected during the early phase of the pandemic (April 2020) and tested for SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies. Commercially available IgA- and IgG-specific ELISAs were used as screening technique, followed by an in-house neutralization assay for confirmation. Neutralizing SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies were detected in seven of 198 (3.5%) tested HCWs. There was no significant difference in seroprevalence between the regional medical center (3.4%) and the outpatient institution (5%). The overall seroprevalence of neutralizing SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in HCWs in both a large regional medical center and a small outpatient institution was low (3.5%) at the beginning of April 2020. The findings may indicate that the timely implemented preventive measures (strict hygiene protocols, personal protective equipment) were effective to protect from transmission of an airborne virus when only limited information on the pathogen was available.
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spelling pubmed-80682112021-04-25 SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among Health Care Workers—A Voluntary Screening Study in a Regional Medical Center in Southern Germany Müller, Katharina Girl, Philipp Ruhnke, Michaela Spranger, Mareike Kaier, Klaus von Buttlar, Heiner Dobler, Gerhard Borde, Johannes P. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is associated with a potentially severe clinical manifestation, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and currently poses a worldwide challenge. Health care workers (HCWs) are at the forefront of any health care system and thus especially at risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection due to their potentially frequent and close contact with patients suffering from COVID-19. Serum samples from 198 HCWs with direct patient contact of a regional medical center and several outpatient facilities were collected during the early phase of the pandemic (April 2020) and tested for SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies. Commercially available IgA- and IgG-specific ELISAs were used as screening technique, followed by an in-house neutralization assay for confirmation. Neutralizing SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies were detected in seven of 198 (3.5%) tested HCWs. There was no significant difference in seroprevalence between the regional medical center (3.4%) and the outpatient institution (5%). The overall seroprevalence of neutralizing SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in HCWs in both a large regional medical center and a small outpatient institution was low (3.5%) at the beginning of April 2020. The findings may indicate that the timely implemented preventive measures (strict hygiene protocols, personal protective equipment) were effective to protect from transmission of an airborne virus when only limited information on the pathogen was available. MDPI 2021-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8068211/ /pubmed/33917840 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18083910 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Müller, Katharina
Girl, Philipp
Ruhnke, Michaela
Spranger, Mareike
Kaier, Klaus
von Buttlar, Heiner
Dobler, Gerhard
Borde, Johannes P.
SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among Health Care Workers—A Voluntary Screening Study in a Regional Medical Center in Southern Germany
title SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among Health Care Workers—A Voluntary Screening Study in a Regional Medical Center in Southern Germany
title_full SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among Health Care Workers—A Voluntary Screening Study in a Regional Medical Center in Southern Germany
title_fullStr SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among Health Care Workers—A Voluntary Screening Study in a Regional Medical Center in Southern Germany
title_full_unstemmed SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among Health Care Workers—A Voluntary Screening Study in a Regional Medical Center in Southern Germany
title_short SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among Health Care Workers—A Voluntary Screening Study in a Regional Medical Center in Southern Germany
title_sort sars-cov-2 seroprevalence among health care workers—a voluntary screening study in a regional medical center in southern germany
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8068211/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33917840
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18083910
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