Very high relative seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among communities in Bangui, Central African Republic

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Abstract

Background

Large-scale population-based seroprevalence studies of SARS-CoV-2 are essential to characterize the cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and to extrapolate the prevalence of presumptive immunity at the population level.

Objective

The objective of our survey was to estimate the cumulative population immunity for COVID-19 and to identify individual characteristics associated with a positive serostatus.

Method

This was a clustered cross-sectional study conducted from July 12 to August 20, 2021, in households in the city of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. Information regarding demographic characteristics (age, gender, and place of residence), comorbidities (chronic diseases) was collected. A venous blood sample was obtained for each participant to determine the level of total anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using a WANTAI SARS-CoV-2 Ab ELISA kit.

Results

All up, 799 participants were surveyed. The average age was 27 years, and 45·8% of the respondents were male (sex ratio: 0.8). The overall proportion of respondents with a positive serostatus was 74·1%. Participants over 20 years of age were twice as likely to have a positive serostatus, with an OR of 2.· ·2 (95% CI: [1·6, 3·1]).

Interpretation

The results of this survey revealed a high cumulative level of immunity in Bangui, thus indicating a significant degree of spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the population. The public health implications of this high level of immunity to SARS-CoV-2, particularly on its variants burden, remain to be determined.

Funding

This study was funded by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs through the REPAIR COVID-19-Africa project coordinated by the Pasteur International Network association.

Article activity feed

  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.11.18.21266496: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: Informed and signed consent was obtained from each participant.
    IRB: Ethical clearance: This study was authorised by the Ministry of Health of the Central African Republic (N° 603/MSPP/DIRCAB/CMRF-21) and by the Ethics and Scientific Committee of the University of Bangui (N°09/UB/FACSS/IPB/CES/20)
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    RandomizationWe performed a random cluster sampling according to the method described by Bennett et al. (9).
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    Briefly, the Wantai ELISA kit used is based on a double-antigen sandwich assay: the solid phase is coated with recombinant SARS-CoV-2 antigens, which can simultaneously bind antibody isotypes (IgA, IgM, and IgG) directed against SARS-CoV-2.
    antigens,
    suggested: None
    IgG
    suggested: None
    SARS-CoV-2
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Data collection and analysis: The data were entered into an Access 2016 database, and the statistical analyses were performed with STATA version 14 software (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA).
    STATA
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)
    StataCorp
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)

    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: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.


    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.