Goldblatt, D;
Johnson, M;
Falup-Pecurariu, O;
Ivaskeviciene, I;
Spoulou, V;
Tamm, E;
Wagner, M;
... Zavadska, D; + view all
(2021)
Cross Sectional Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Health Care Workers in Paediatric Facilities in Eight Countries.
Journal of Hospital Infection
10.1016/j.jhin.2020.12.019.
(In press).
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Healthcare workers (HCWs) have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 which may in part be driven by nosocomial exposure. If HCW exposure is predominantly nosocomial, HCWs in paediatric facilities, where few patients are admitted with COVID-19, may lack antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and be at increased risk during the current resurgence. AIMS: To compare SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence amongst HCWs in paediatric facilities in seven European countries and South Africa (n=8). METHODS: All categories of paediatric HCWs were invited to participate in the study irrespective of previous symptoms. A single blood sample was taken and data about previous symptoms documented. Serum was shipped to a central laboratory in London where IgG to SARS-CoV-2 was measured. FINDINGS: 4114 HCWs were recruited between 1st May and mid-July 2020. The overall seroprevalence range was 0-16·93%. The highest seroprevalence was in London (16.93%) followed by that in Cape Town, South Africa (10.36%). There were no positive HCWs in the Austrian, Estonian and Latvian cohorts, 2/300 positive in Lithuania (0·66%, 0·18-2.4), 1/124 (0·81%, 0·14-4.3) in Romania, and 1/76 (1·3%, 0·23-7·0) in Greece. CONCLUSION: The overall seroprevalence amongst paediatric HCWs is similar to their national populations and linked to national COVID-19 burden. Staff working in paediatric facilities in low burden countries have very low rates of seroprevalence and thus are likely to be susceptible to COVID-19. Their susceptibility to infection may impact on the ability to provide care in the face of increasing COVID-19 disease and highlights the need for appropriate preventative strategies in paediatric health care settings.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Cross Sectional Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Health Care Workers in Paediatric Facilities in Eight Countries |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.12.019 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.12.019 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an Open Access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Health Care Workers, Hospital Workers, SARS-CoV-2, Seroprevalence |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Infection, Immunity and Inflammation Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10119498 |
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