Coyle, Peter V; Chemaitelly, Hiam; Hadj Kacem, Mohamed Ali Ben; Al Molawi, Naema Hassan Abdulla; Kahlout, Reham Awni El; Gilliani, Imtiaz; Younes, Nourah; Kanaani, Zaina Al; Khal, Abdullatif Al; Kuwari, Einas Al; +13 more... Butt, Adeel A; Jeremijenko, Andrew; Kaleeckal, Anvar Hassan; Latif, Ali Nizar; Shaik, Riyazuddin Mohammad; Rahim, Hanan F Abdul; Nasrallah, Gheyath K; Yassine, Hadi M; Kuwari, Mohamed G Al; Romaihi, Hamad Eid Al; Al-Thani, Mohamed H; Bertollini, Roberto; Abu-Raddad, Laith J; (2021) SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in the urban population of Qatar: An analysis of antibody testing on a sample of 112,941 individuals. Medrxiv. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.05.21249247
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Abstract
<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Qatar has experienced a large SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. Our first objective was to assess the proportion of the urban population that has been infected with SARS-CoV-2, by measuring the prevalence of detectable antibodies. Our second objective was to identify predictors for infection and for having higher antibody titers.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>Residual blood specimens from individuals receiving routine and other clinical care between May 12-September 9, 2020 were tested for anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Associations with seropositivity and higher antibody titers were identified through regression analyses. Probability weights were applied in deriving the epidemiological measures.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>We tested 112,941 individuals (∼10% of Qatar’s urban population), of whom 51.6% were men and 66.0% were 20-49 years of age. Seropositivity was 13.3% (95% CI: 13.1-13.6%) and was significantly associated with sex, age, nationality, clinical-care type, and testing date. The proportion with higher antibody titers varied by age, nationality, clinical-care type, and testing date. There was a strong correlation between higher antibody titers and seroprevalence in each nationality, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.85 (95% CI: 0.47-0.96), suggesting that higher antibody titers may indicate repeated exposure to the virus. The percentage of antibody-positive persons with prior PCR-confirmed diagnosis was 47.1% (95% CI: 46.1-48.2%), severity rate was 3.9% (95% CI: 3.7-4.2%), criticality rate was 1.3% (95% CI: 1.1-1.4%), and fatality rate was 0.3% (95% CI: 0.2-0.3%).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Fewer than two in every 10 individuals in Qatar’s urban population had detectable antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 between May 12-September 9, 2020, suggesting that this population is still far from the herd immunity threshold and at risk from a subsequent epidemic wave.</jats:p></jats:sec>
Item Type | Article |
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Faculty and Department | Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health > Dept of Infectious Disease Epidemiology |
Research Centre | Covid-19 Research |
Elements ID | 155433 |
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Filename: 2021.01.05.21249247v1.full.pdf
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