Seroprevalence of specific antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 from hotspot communities in the Dominican Republic

Robert Paulino-Ramirez, Amado Alejandro Baez, Alejandro Vallejo Degaudenzi, Leandro Tapia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2343-2346
Number of pages4
JournalAmerican Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Volume103
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2020

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Parasitology
  • Virology
  • Infectious Diseases

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