Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in a population from Veracruz (Southeastern Mexico)

  1. Jose María Remes-Troche
  2. Antonio Ramos-De-la-Medina
  3. Marisol Manríquez-Reyes
  4. Laura Martínez-Pérez Maldonado
  5. María Antonieta Solis-Gonzalez
  6. Karina Guadalupe Hernández Flores
  7. Héctor Vivanco Cid

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Abstract

Introduction/Aim

Recent studies have shown that seroprevalence is quite variable depending on the country, the population and the time of the pandemic in which the serological tests are performed. Here, we investigated the prevalence of IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in a population living in Veracruz City, México.

Methods

From of June 1 to July 31, 2020, the consecutive adult patients (age ≥18 years) that attended 2 ambulatory diagnostic private practice centers for testing were included. Samples were run on the Abbott Architect instrument using the commercial Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay. The main outcome was seroprevalence. Demographics, previous infection to SARS-CoV-2 (according to a previous positive polymerase-chain reaction nasopharyngeal swab), self-suspicious of virus of infection (according to have in the previous 4 weeks either fever, headache, respiratory symptoms but not a confirmatory PCR) or no having symptoms were also evaluated.

Results

A total of 2174 subjects were tested, included 53.6% women (mean age 41.8±15.17 years, range 18-98 years). One thousand and forty-one (52.5%) subjects were asymptomatic, 722 (33.2%) had suspicious of infection and 311 (14.3%) had previous infection. Overall, 642 of 2174 (29.5% [95% CI 27.59%-31.47%]) of our population were seropositive. Seropositivity among groups was 21.3% in asymptomatic, 23.4% in self-suspicious patients and 73.9% in previous infection patients.

Conclusions

We found one of the highest seroprevalences reported for SARS-CoV-2 worldwide in asymptomatic subjects (21.3%) as well in subjects with self-suspicious of COVID-19 (23.4%). The number of infected subjects in our population is not encouraging and it should be interpreted with caution.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.19.20215558: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The Hospital Español institutional review board approved this research.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Samples were run on the Abbott Architect instrument using the commercial Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay.
    Abbott
    suggested: (Abbott, RRID:SCR_010477)
    IBM® SPSS Statistics® version 22 was used for analyses.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Our study has obvious limitations. Selection bias is likely. The estimated prevalence may be biased due to symptomatic individuals and their family members may have been more likely to participate. Prevalence estimates could change with new information on the accuracy of test kits used. Also, the study was limited to our region of our county. Serologic testing in other locations is warranted to track the progress of the epidemic in the whole country.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.10.19.20215558v1 on medRxiv