This article is a Preprint
Preprints are preliminary research reports that have not been certified by peer review. They should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Preprints posted online allow authors to receive rapid feedback and the entire scientific community can appraise the work for themselves and respond appropriately. Those comments are posted alongside the preprints for anyone to read them and serve as a post publication assessment.
Low awareness of past SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthy adults (preprint)
medrxiv; 2020.
Preprint
in English
| medRxiv | ID: ppzbmed-10.1101.2020.08.10.20171561
ABSTRACT
Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic challenges governments worldwide to balance appropriate virus control measures and their societal and economic consequences. These control measures include the identification, isolation and testing of potentially infected individuals. As this relies on an individual's awareness of infection, we investigated the extent to which healthy adults suspected having had COVID-19, and how COVID-19 suspicion and symptoms relate to antibodies indicative of a past infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Methods and findings Individuals donating plasma anywhere in the Netherlands between May 11th and 18th were screened for total SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using ELISA and invited to participate in an online questionnaire about COVID-19-related symptoms and awareness. Antibody and questionnaire data were complete for 3,676 individuals, including 239 (6.5%) that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Here, we show that a 38% of the individuals that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies reported having had no or only very mild symptoms at any time during the peak of the epidemic. The loss of taste and/or smell in particular was significantly associated with seropositivity, independent of age and sex. Forty-eight percent of antibody-positive persons did not suspect having had COVID-19, in spite of most of them reporting symptoms. Conclusions Awareness of infection was low among individuals that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, even at the peak of the epidemic. Improved awareness and recognition of COVID-19 symptoms and tracing of asymptomatic contacts is crucial to halting SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Preprints
Database:
medRxiv
Main subject:
COVID-19
Language:
English
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Preprint
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS