1. COVID-19 seroprevalence cohort survey among health care workers and their household members in Kinshasa, DR Congo, 2020–2022
- Author
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Joule Madinga, Placide Mbala-Kingebeni, Antoine Nkuba-Ndaye, Leonel Baketana-Kinzonzi, Elysé Matungulu-Biyala, Patrick Mutombo-Lupola, Caroline-Aurore Seghers, Tom Smekens, Kevin K. Ariën, Wim Van Damme, Andreas Kalk, Martine Peeters, Steve Ahuka-Mundeke, Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, and Veerle Vanlerberghe
- Subjects
COVID-19 ,Democratic republic of congo ,Sero-survey ,Cohort ,Health care worker ,Nutritional diseases. Deficiency diseases ,RC620-627 ,Public aspects of medicine ,RA1-1270 - Abstract
Abstract Introduction Serological surveys offer the most direct measurement to define the immunity status for numerous infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, and can provide valuable insights into understanding transmission patterns. This study describes seroprevalence changes over time in the context of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where COVID-19 case presentation was apparently largely oligo- or asymptomatic, and vaccination coverage remained extremely low. Methods A cohort of 635 health care workers (HCW) from 5 health zones of Kinshasa and 670 of their household members was interviewed and sampled in 6 rounds between July 2020 and January 2022. At each round, information on risk exposure and a blood sample were collected. Serology was defined as positive when binding antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins were simultaneously present. Results The SARS-CoV-2 antibody seroprevalence was high at baseline, 17.3% (95% CI 14.4–20.6) and 7.8% (95% CI 5.5–10.8) for HCW and household members, respectively, and fluctuated over time, between 9% and 62.1%. Seropositivity was heterogeneously distributed over the health zones (p
- Published
- 2024
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