Seroprevalence of specific antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 from hotspot communities in the Dominican Republic.
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Date
2020Author
Paulino-Ramírez, Robert
Báez, Amado Alejandro
Vallejo Degaudenzi, Alejandro
Tapía, Leandro
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Seroprevalence surveys are of utmost importance to assess the proportion of a population that has developed
antibodies against a newly introduced virus and could therefore potentially exhibit immunologic protection
against subsequent infection. This study aims to understand the distribution of IgM and IgG antibodies in the Dominican
Republic. We surveyed a total of 12,897 participants between April and June 2020 in 10 provinces of the Dominican
Republic. Survey efforts in emerging hotspots yielded a positivity for all participants of anti–SARS-CoV-2 IgM of 3.8% and
IgG of 5.4%, indicating that the pathogen was in circulation before the identification of those particular communities as
hotspots. We found important age differences between participants who participated in the serological study where a
higher mean age is associated IgM positivity and a lower age with IgG positivity. Our results highlight the need for
strategies that involve community-based seroprevalence monitoring. These should preclude syndromic case identification.
Also, the higher mean age of IgM-positive participants suggests that strategies based on syndromic surveillance
could identify hotspots at later phases, based on the number of cases detected at the healthcare center, as such
community-based seroprevalence monitoring may be an effective intervention for future outbreaks
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