SerumCovid database: Description and preliminary analysis of serological COVID-19 diagnosis in healthcare workers

PLoS One. 2022 Mar 17;17(3):e0265016. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265016. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Serological databases represent an important source of information to perceive COVID-19 impact on health professionals involved in combating the disease. This paper describes SerumCovid, a COVID-19 serological database focused on the diagnosis of health professionals, providing a preliminary analysis to contribute to the understanding of the antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2. The study population comprises 321 samples from 236 healthcare and frontline workers fighting COVID-19 in Vitória de Santo Antão, Brazil. Samples were collected from at least six days of symptoms to more than 100 days. The used immunoenzymatic assays were Euroimmun Anti-SARS-CoV-2 ELISA IgG and IgA. The most common gender in SerumCovid is female, while the most common age group is between 30 and 39 years old. However, no statistical differences were observed in either genders or age categories. The most reported symptoms were fatigue, headaches, and myalgia. Still, some subjects presented positive results for IgA after 130 days. Based on a temporal analysis, we have not identified general patterns as subjects presented high and low values of IgA and IgG with different evolution trends. Unexpectedly, for subjects with both serological tests, the outcome of IgA and IgG tests were the same (either positive or negative) for more than 80% of the samples. Therefore, SerumCovid helps better understand how COVID-19 affected healthcare and frontline workers, which increases knowledge about the infection and enables direct prevention actions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Antibodies, Viral / immunology
  • Brazil / epidemiology
  • COVID-19 / diagnosis
  • COVID-19 / epidemiology*
  • COVID-19 / immunology
  • COVID-19 Serological Testing* / methods
  • COVID-19 Serological Testing* / statistics & numerical data
  • Databases as Topic
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
  • Female
  • Health Personnel / statistics & numerical data*
  • Humans
  • Immunoglobulin A / immunology
  • Immunoglobulin G / immunology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • SARS-CoV-2 / immunology
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Antibodies, Viral
  • Immunoglobulin A
  • Immunoglobulin G

Grants and funding

We present the Role of Funder for each sponsor received: • ‘Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Inovação (Propesqi)’ of the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (processes 23076.019632/2020-11 awarded to I.D.L., and 23076.019663/2020-47 awarded by A.L.G): financial support for data collection and analysis • ‘Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)’ (grant numbers 305696/2018-1 awarded to M.J.C.M, and 309617/2019-7 awarded by I.D.L): research grant • ‘Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)’ - Finance Code 001: research grant.