SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in a high-altitude setting in Peru: adult population-based cross-sectional study
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Abstract
There are several ecological studies, but few studies of the prevalence of SARS-COV-2 at high altitude. We aimed to estimate the population-based seroprevalence of SARS-COV-2 in three settings of Cusco at the end of the first wave among adults.
Methods
A population-based survey was conducted in September 2020, in three settings in the region of Cusco: (1) Cusco city at 3,300 meters above the sea level (m.a.s.l.), (2) the periphery of Cusco (Santiago, San Jerónimo, San Sebastián, and Wanchaq) at 3,300 m.a.s.l., and (3) Quillabamba city, located at 1,050 m.a.s.l. People aged ≥ 18 years within a family unit were included. The diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection was based on identifying anti- SARS-CoV-2 total antibodies (IgM and IgG) in serum using the Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 chemiluminescence test.
Results
We enrolled 1924 participants from 712 families. Of the total, 637 participants were anti-SARS-CoV-2 seropositive. Seroprevalence was 38.8% (95% CI [33.4%–44.9%]) in Cusco city, 34.9% (95% CI [30.4%–40.1%]) in the periphery of Cusco, and 20.3% (95% CI [16.2%–25.6%]) in Quillabamba. In 141 families (19.8%; 95% CI [17.0%–22.8%]) the whole members were positive to the test. Living with more than three persons in the same house, a positive COVID-19 case at home, and a member who died in the last five months were factors associated with SARS-COV-2 seropositivity. Dysgeusia/dysosmia was the symptom most associated with seropositivity (aPR = 2.74, 95% CI [2.41–3.12]); whereas always wearing a face shield (aPR = 0. 73; 95% CI [0.60–0.89]) or a facial mask (aPR = 0.76, 95% CI [0.63–0. 92) reduced that probability.
Conclusions
A great proportion of Cusco’s city inhabitants presented anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at the end of the first wave, with significant differences between settings. Wearing masks and face shields were associated with lower rate of seropositivity; however, efforts must be made to sustain them over time since there is still a high proportion of susceptible people.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.01.17.21249990: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Consent: Three different study settings were selected as follows: Participants and sampling: People aged ≥18 years old, who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study, signed their informed consent, accepted the telephone and serological follow-up, usual resident of the study area (≥6 months), and with the ability to understand the procedures were included.
IRB: Ethics: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Universidad Científica del Sur (code 051-2020-PRO99).Randomization Of them, 10, 16 and 8 clusters were randomly chosen in each of the settings, respectively. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis With this sample size, we had a power over 80% … SciScore for 10.1101/2021.01.17.21249990: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Consent: Three different study settings were selected as follows: Participants and sampling: People aged ≥18 years old, who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study, signed their informed consent, accepted the telephone and serological follow-up, usual resident of the study area (≥6 months), and with the ability to understand the procedures were included.
IRB: Ethics: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Universidad Científica del Sur (code 051-2020-PRO99).Randomization Of them, 10, 16 and 8 clusters were randomly chosen in each of the settings, respectively. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis With this sample size, we had a power over 80% to detect a difference in the prevalence of COVID-19 infection of at least 5% (e.g., 5% vs. 10%) between the groups of interest (study setting and gender). Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources 14,15 Statistical analysis: For data analysis, STATA 16 for Windows (StataCorp, CollegeStation, TX, US) was utilized. STATAsuggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)StataCorpsuggested: (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.
- No funding statement was detected.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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