Prevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in outpatients of a large public university hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil

• Published in: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
• Main Authors: Luanda Mara da Silva Oliveira, Bruna Tiaki Tiyo, Lais Teodoro da Silva, Luiz Augusto Marcondes Fonseca, Rosana Coura Rocha, Vera Aparecida dos Santos, Carina Ceneviva, Anderson Aparecido Bedin, Alexandre de Almeida, Alberto José da Silva Duarte, Telma Miyuki Oshiro
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) 2020
• Subjects: COVID-19; Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies; Serological inquiry; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/s1678-9946202062091; https://doaj.org/article/c7a5d31b30e44f189094649e2b80d2ec

ABSTRACT Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is caused by SARS-Cov-2 and the manifestations of this infection range from an absence of symptoms all the way up to severe disease leading to death. To estimate the prevalence of past infection in a population, the most readily available method is the detection of antibodies against the virus. This study has investigated the prevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in outpatients of the Hospital das Clinicas, in Sao Paulo city (Brazil), which is a large university hospital belonging to the public health system that cares for patients with complex diseases who need tertiary or quaternary medical care. Our serological inquiry was carried out for 6 weeks, with once-a-week blood sampling and included 439 patients from several outpatient services. Overall, 61 patients tested positive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG (13.9%); 56.1 % of the patients live in Sao Paulo city, with the remaining living in other towns of the metropolitan area; 32.8% of the patients testing positive for IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 were asymptomatic, 55.7% developed mild or moderate disease and 11.5% had to be hospitalized. The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 positive serology was lower among patients who had received the seasonal influenza vaccine compared to the ones who did not. These findings may indicate that those individuals care more about health issues, and/or that they have a better access to health care and/or a better quality of health care service. The large proportion of patients who were unaware of having had contact with SARS-CoV-2 deserves attention, reflecting the scarcity of tests performed in the population.