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Thon V, Piler P, Pavlík T, Andrýsková L, Doležel K, Kostka D, Pikhart H, Bobák M, Klánová J. Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in relation to natural infection and vaccination between October 2020 and September 2021 in the Czech Republic: a prospective national cohort study. BMJ Open 2023; 13:e068258. [PMID: 36898746 PMCID: PMC10008433 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-068258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/12/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Examine changes in SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity before and during the national vaccination campaign in the Czech Republic. DESIGN Prospective national population-based cohort study. SETTING Masaryk University, RECETOX, Brno. PARTICIPANTS 22 130 persons provided blood samples at two time points approximately 5-7 months apart, between October 2020 and March 2021 (phase I, before vaccination), and between April and September 2021 (during vaccination campaign). OUTCOME MEASURES Antigen-specific humoral immune response was analysed by detection of IgG antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein by commercial chemiluminescent immunoassays. Participants completed a questionnaire that included personal information, anthropometric data, self-reported results of previous RT-PCR tests (if performed), history of symptoms compatible with COVID-19 and records of COVID-19 vaccination. Seroprevalence was compared between calendar periods, previous RT-PCR results, vaccination and other individual characteristics. RESULTS Before vaccination (phase I), seroprevalence increased from 15% in October 2020 to 56% in March 2021. By the end of phase II, in September 2021, prevalence increased to 91%; the highest seroprevalence was seen among vaccinated persons with and without previous SARS-CoV-2 infection (99.7% and 97.2%, respectively), while the lowest seroprevalence was found among unvaccinated persons with no signs of disease (26%). Vaccination rates were lower in persons who were seropositive in phase I but increased with age and body mass index. Only 9% of unvaccinated subjects who were seropositive in phase I became seronegative by phase II. CONCLUSIONS The rapid increase in seropositivity during the second wave of the COVID-19 epidemic (covered by phase I of this study) was followed by a similarly steep rise in seroprevalence during the national vaccination campaign, reaching seropositivity rates of over 97% among vaccinated persons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vojtěch Thon
- RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Pavel Piler
- RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Tomáš Pavlík
- Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Lenka Andrýsková
- RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | | | - David Kostka
- Health Insurance Company of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Hynek Pikhart
- RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
- Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Martin Bobák
- RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
- Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Jana Klánová
- RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
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Amati R, Piumatti G, Franscella G, Buttaroni P, Camerini AL, Corna L, Levati S, Fadda M, Fiordelli M, Annoni AM, Bezani K, Amendola A, Fragoso Corti C, Sabatini S, Kaufmann M, Frei A, Puhan MA, Crivelli L, Albanese E. Trajectories of Seroprevalence and Neutralizing Activity of Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in Southern Switzerland between July 2020 and July 2021: An Ongoing, Prospective Population-Based Cohort Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2023; 20:3703. [PMID: 36834397 PMCID: PMC9964112 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20043703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2022] [Revised: 02/13/2023] [Accepted: 02/16/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The COVID-19 pandemic continues, and evidence on infection- and vaccine-induced immunity is key. We assessed COVID-19 immunity and the neutralizing antibody response to virus variants across age groups in the Swiss population. STUDY DESIGN We conducted a cohort study in representative community-dwelling residents aged five years or older in southern Switzerland (total population 353,343), and we collected blood samples in July 2020 (in adults only, N = 646), November-December 2020 (N = 1457), and June-July 2021 (N = 885). METHODS We used a previously validated Luminex assay to measure antibodies targeting the spike (S) and the nucleocapsid (N) proteins of the virus and a high-throughput cell-free neutralization assay optimized for multiple spike protein variants. We calculated seroprevalence with a Bayesian logistic regression model accounting for the population's sociodemographic structure and the test performance, and we compared the neutralizing activity between vaccinated and convalescent participants across virus variants. RESULTS The overall seroprevalence was 7.8% (95% CI: 5.4-10.4) by July 2020 and 20.2% (16.4-24.4) by December 2020. By July 2021, the overall seroprevalence increased substantially to 72.5% (69.1-76.4), with the highest estimates of 95.6% (92.8-97.8) among older adults, who developed up to 10.3 more antibodies via vaccination than after infection compared to 3.7 times more in adults. The neutralizing activity was significantly higher for vaccine-induced than infection-induced antibodies for all virus variants (all p values < 0.037). CONCLUSIONS Vaccination chiefly contributed to the reduction in immunonaive individuals, particularly those in older age groups. Our findings on the greater neutralizing activity of vaccine-induced antibodies than infection-induced antibodies are greatly informative for future vaccination campaigns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Amati
- Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
| | | | - Giovanni Franscella
- Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
| | - Peter Buttaroni
- Faculty of Informatics, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
| | - Anne-Linda Camerini
- Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
| | - Laurie Corna
- Department of Business Economics, Health and Social Care, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, 6928 Manno, Switzerland
| | - Sara Levati
- Department of Business Economics, Health and Social Care, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, 6928 Manno, Switzerland
| | - Marta Fadda
- Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
| | - Maddalena Fiordelli
- Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
- Department of Health Sciences, University of Lucerne, 6002 Lucerne, Switzerland
| | - Anna Maria Annoni
- Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
| | - Kleona Bezani
- Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
| | - Antonio Amendola
- Department of Business Economics, Health and Social Care, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, 6928 Manno, Switzerland
| | - Cristina Fragoso Corti
- Institute of Microbiology, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, 6501 Bellinzona, Switzerland
| | - Serena Sabatini
- Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
| | - Marco Kaufmann
- Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Anja Frei
- Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Milo Alan Puhan
- Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Luca Crivelli
- Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
- Department of Business Economics, Health and Social Care, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, 6928 Manno, Switzerland
| | - Emiliano Albanese
- Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
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Lochmanová A, Martinek J, Tomášková H, Zelená H, Dieckmann K, Grage-Griebenow E, Ježo E, Janošek J. Comparison of Two Commercially Available Interferon-γ Release Assays for T-Cell-Mediated Immunity and Evaluation of Humoral Immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in Healthcare Workers. Diagnostics (Basel) 2023; 13. [PMID: 36832126 DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics13040637] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2023] [Revised: 02/06/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is an important component of the immune response to the virus. At present, two such tests based on interferon-gamma release (interferon-γ release assays, IGRAs) are available-Quan-T-Cell SARS-CoV-2 by EUROIMMUN and T-SPOT.COVID by Oxford Immunotec. In this paper, we compared the results of these two tests in 90 subjects employed at the Public Health Institute Ostrava who had previously undergone COVID-19 infection or were vaccinated against that disease. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first head-to-head comparison of these two tests evaluating T-cell-mediated immunity against SARS-CoV-2. In addition, we also evaluated humoral immunity in the same individuals using the in-house virus neutralization test and IgG ELISA assay. The evaluation yielded similar results for both IGRAs, with Quan-T-Cell appearing to be insignificantly (p = 0.08) more sensitive (all 90 individuals were at least borderline positive) than T-SPOT.COVID (negative results found in five patients). The overall qualitative (presence/absence of immune response) agreement of both tests with virus neutralization test and anti-S IgG was also excellent (close or equal to 100% in all subgroups, with the exception of unvaccinated Omicron convalescents, a large proportion of whom, i.e., four out of six subjects, were IgG negative while at least borderline positive for T-cell-mediated immunity measured by Quan-T). This implies that the evaluation of T-cell-mediated immunity is a more sensitive indicator of immune response than the evaluation of IgG seropositivity. This is true at least for unvaccinated patients with a history of being infected only by the Omicron variant, but also likely for other groups of patients.
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Axfors C, Pezzullo AM, Contopoulos-Ioannidis DG, Apostolatos A, Ioannidis JPA. Differential COVID-19 infection rates in children, adults, and elderly: Systematic review and meta-analysis of 38 pre-vaccination national seroprevalence studies. J Glob Health 2023; 13:06004. [PMID: 36655924 PMCID: PMC9850866 DOI: 10.7189/jogh.13.06004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Debate exists about whether extra protection of elderly and other vulnerable individuals is feasible in COVID-19. We aimed to assess the relative infection rates in the elderly vs the non-elderly and, secondarily, in children vs adults. Methods We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of seroprevalence studies conducted in the pre-vaccination era. We identified representative national studies without high risk of bias through SeroTracker and PubMed searches (last updated May 17, 2022). We noted seroprevalence estimates for children, non-elderly adults, and elderly adults, using cut-offs of 20 and 60 years (or as close to these ages, if they were unavailable) and compared them between different age groups. Results We included 38 national seroprevalence studies from 36 different countries comprising 826 963 participants. Twenty-six of these studies also included pediatric populations and twenty-five were from high-income countries. The median ratio of seroprevalence in elderly vs non-elderly adults (or non-elderly in general, if pediatric and adult population data were not offered separately) was 0.90-0.95 in different analyses, with large variability across studies. In five studies (all in high-income countries), we observed significant protection of the elderly with a ratio of <0.40, with a median of 0.83 in high-income countries and 1.02 elsewhere. The median ratio of seroprevalence in children vs adults was 0.89 and only one study showed a significant ratio of <0.40. The main limitation of our study is the inaccuracies and biases in seroprevalence studies. Conclusions Precision shielding of elderly community-dwelling populations before the availability of vaccines was indicated in some high-income countries, but most countries failed to achieve any substantial focused protection. Registration Open Science Framework (available at: https://osf.io/xvupr).
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Affiliation(s)
- Cathrine Axfors
- Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA,Department for Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Angelo Maria Pezzullo
- Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA,Section of Hygiene, Department of Life Sciences and Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
| | - Despina G Contopoulos-Ioannidis
- Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA,Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Alexandre Apostolatos
- Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA,Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada
| | - John PA Ioannidis
- Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA,Departments of Medicine, of Epidemiology and Population Health, of Biomedical Data Science, and of Statistics, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
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Krogsgaard LW, Espenhain L, Tribler S, Sværke Jørgensen C, Hansen CH, Møller FT, Glode Helmuth I, Sönksen UW, Vangsted AM, Ullum H, Ethelberg S. Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Denmark: Results of Two Nationwide Population-Based Surveys, February and May 2021. Infect Drug Resist 2023; 16:301-312. [PMID: 36683911 PMCID: PMC9851711 DOI: 10.2147/idr.s383491] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Seroprevalence studies can be used to measure the progression of national COVID-19 epidemics. The Danish National Seroprevalence Survey of SARS-CoV-2 infections (DSS) was conducted as five separate surveys between May 2020 and May 2021. Here, we present results from the two last surveys conducted in February and May 2021. Methods Persons aged 12 or older were randomly selected from the Danish Population Register and those having received COVID-19 vaccination subsequently excluded. Invitations to have blood drawn in local test centers were sent by mail. Samples were analyzed for whole Immunoglobulin by ELISA. Seroprevalence was estimated by sex, age and geography. Comparisons to vaccination uptake and RT-PCR test results were made. Results In February 2021, we found detectable antibodies in 7.2% (95% CI: 6.3-7.9%) of the invited participants (participation rate 25%) and in May 2021 in 8.6% (95% CI: 7.6-9.5%) of the invited (participation rate: 14%). Seroprevalence did not differ by sex, but by age group, generally being higher among the <50 than 50+ year-olds. In May 2021, levels of seroprevalence varied from an estimated 13% (95% CI: 12-15%) in the capital to 5.2% (95% CI: 3.4-7.4%) in rural areas. Combining seroprevalence results with vaccine coverage, estimates of protection against infection in May 2021 varied from 95% among 65+ year-olds down to 10-20% among 12-40 year-olds. In March-May 2021, an estimated 80% of all community SARS-CoV-2 infections were diagnosed by RT-PCR and captured by surveillance. Conclusion Seroprevalence estimates doubled during the 2020-21 winter wave of SARS-CoV-2 infections and then stabilized as vaccinations were rolled out. The epidemic affected large cities and younger people the most. Denmark saw comparatively low infections rates, but high test coverage; an estimated four out of five infections were detected by RT-PCR in March-May 2021.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lene Wulff Krogsgaard
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Laura Espenhain
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Siri Tribler
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | - Christian Holm Hansen
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Frederik Trier Møller
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ida Glode Helmuth
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ute Wolff Sönksen
- Department of Bacteria, Parasites and Fungi, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark,TestCentre Denmark, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | - Henrik Ullum
- Division of Infectious Disease Preparedness, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Steen Ethelberg
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark,Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark,Correspondence: Steen Ethelberg, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, Statens Serum Institut, 5 Artillerivej, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark, Tel +45 3268 3545, Email
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