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Volume 71, Issue 8

SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in hospital healthcare workers in Western Switzerland at the end of the second pandemic wave Open Access

This article is part of the Coronaviruses collection

Abstract

In early January 2020, the pandemic of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) rapidly spread from China and caused a worldwide pandemic.

Healthcare workers represent a high-risk group for acquiring COVID-19 and for nosocomial transmission of severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

We aimed to investigate over a 1 year period, across two pandemic waves, the SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in employees at a Western Switzerland public hospital.

A prospective observational SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence study was proposed to all hospital employees who enrolled on a voluntary basis.

Out of 594 participants recruited on a voluntary basis, 269 volunteers (45.3 %) had anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies: this seroprevalence was twice higher than that reported in the local community. Healthcare workers with prolonged exposure to patients with COVID-19 showed a significantly higher odds ratio (OR) of having a positive SARS-CoV-2 serology [OR 3.19, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 2.16–4.74]. Symptoms showing the highest association with a positive serology were anosmia (OR 11.9, 95 % CI 5.58–30.9) and ageusia (OR 10.3, 95 % CI 4.8–26.3). A total of 17.1 % (95 % CI 12.2–21.1 %) of SARS-CoV-2 seropositive volunteers did not report a suspicion of COVID-19 in their personal history.

Overall, we observed that the impact of the second SARS-CoV-2 pandemic wave was considerable and significantly affected healthcare workers with prolonged exposure to patients with COVID-19.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): COVID-19 , healthcare workers , SARS-CoV-2 and seroprevalence
© 2022 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The Microbiology Society waived the open access fees for this article.
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2022-08-03
2024-12-10
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SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in hospital healthcare workers in Western Switzerland at the end of the second pandemic wave
J. Med. Microbiol. 71, 001558 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001558
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001558
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.001558
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