Seroprevalence of SARS COV-2 anti-nucleocapsid antibodies in Turkish healthcare workers before vaccination schedule: January 2021

Ayşin Kılınç Toker 1 * , Ayşe Turunç Özdemir 1, Duygu Çerçioğlu Özdemir 1, Esma Eryilmaz Eren 1, Esma Saatçi 2, İbrahim Toker 3, İlhami Çelik 1
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1 Department of Infectious Disease and Clinical Microbiology, Kayseri City Hospital, Kayseri, Turkey
2 Department of Medical Microbiology, Kayseri City Hospital, Kayseri, Turkey
3 Department of Emergency Medicine, Kayseri City Hospital, Kayseri, Turkey
* Corresponding Author
J CLIN MED KAZ, Volume 19, Issue 3, pp. 65-68. https://doi.org/10.23950/jcmk/12150
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ABSTRACT

Objective: We aimed to assess the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and associated factors among Turkish HCWs, before the Covid-19 vaccination program in January 2021.
Material and methods: We performed antibody assessment against SARS-CoV-2 in blood samples from participants using the Elecsys® Anti-SARS-CoV-2 electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Samples with a cut-off index (COI; signal sample/cut-off) <1.0 were considered negative, samples with ≥1.0 were deemed positive.
Results: 714 HCWs, 487 women (68.2%), were included in our study. The mean age of the participants was 35.9 ± 8.4 (min:18, max: 62). 370 (51.8%) HCWs's the antibody level was negative, and 344 (48.2%) was positive. While 47.1% (n=122) of the HCWs with positive RT-PCR were antibody positive, 48.8% (n=222) were negative. There was no statistically significant difference in mean age and age groups (p values ​​0.338 and 0.414, respectively). Also, there was no statistically significant difference in antibody levels by gender (p=0.236). There was no significant difference between antibody positivity according to the presence of comorbidity, and the risk area studied (p=0.556, p=0.335, respectively). There was a statistically significant difference between lung involvement and antibody positivity during Covid-19 infection (p= <0.001).
Conclusion: In our study, the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in HCWs was higher than the average population and approximately fifty percent. Multicenter studies with more HCWs would be helpful to determine overall seroprevalence rates.
Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 antibody, healthcare worker

CITATION

Kılınç Toker A, Turunç Özdemir A, Çerçioğlu Özdemir D, Eryilmaz Eren E, Saatçi E, Toker İ, et al. Seroprevalence of SARS COV-2 anti-nucleocapsid antibodies in Turkish healthcare workers before vaccination schedule: January 2021. J CLIN MED KAZ. 2022;19(3):65-8. https://doi.org/10.23950/jcmk/12150

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