Seroprevalence of Specific Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 from Hotspot Communities in the Dominican Republic

Seroprevalence surveys are of utmost importance to assess the proportion of a population that has developed antibodies against a newly introduced virus and could therefore potentially exhibit immunologic protection against subsequent infection. This study aims to understand the distribution of IgM a...

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Published in:The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene Vol. 103; no. 6; pp. 2343 - 2346
Main Authors: Paulino-Ramirez, Robert, Báez, Amado Alejandro, Vallejo Degaudenzi, Alejandro, Tapia, Leandro
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Institute of Tropical Medicine 01-12-2020
The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
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Summary:Seroprevalence surveys are of utmost importance to assess the proportion of a population that has developed antibodies against a newly introduced virus and could therefore potentially exhibit immunologic protection against subsequent infection. This study aims to understand the distribution of IgM and IgG antibodies in the Dominican Republic. We surveyed a total of 12,897 participants between April and June 2020 in 10 provinces of the Dominican Republic. Survey efforts in emerging hotspots yielded a positivity for all participants of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgM of 3.8% and IgG of 5.4%, indicating that the pathogen was in circulation before the identification of those particular communities as hotspots. We found important age differences between participants who participated in the serological study where a higher mean age is associated IgM positivity and a lower age with IgG positivity. Our results highlight the need for strategies that involve community-based seroprevalence monitoring. These should preclude syndromic case identification. Also, the higher mean age of IgM-positive participants suggests that strategies based on syndromic surveillance could identify hotspots at later phases, based on the number of cases detected at the healthcare center, as such community-based seroprevalence monitoring may be an effective intervention for future outbreaks.
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Authors’ addresses: Robert Paulino-Ramirez, Instituto de Medicina Tropical & Salud Global, Universidad Iberoamericana, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and COVID-19 Emergency Presidential Committee, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, E-mail: r.paulino1@unibe.edu.do. Amado Alejandro Báez, COVID-19 Emergency Presidential Committee, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, and Center of Operational Medicine, Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Ureña, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, E-mail: aabaezmd@gmail.com. Alejandro Vallejo Degaudenzi and Leandro Tapia, Instituto de Medicina Tropical & Salud Global, Universidad Iberoamericana, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, E-mails: a.vallejo@unibe.edu.do and l.tapia@prof.unibe.edu.do.
ISSN:0002-9637
1476-1645
DOI:10.4269/ajtmh.20-0907