• Johannes Korth, Benjamin Wilde, Sebastian Dolff, Olympia E Anastasiou, Adalbert Krawczyk, Michael Jahn, Sebastian Cordes, Birgit Ross, Stefan Esser, Monika Lindemann, Andreas Kribben, Ulf Dittmer, Oliver Witzke, and Anke Herrmann.
• Department of Nephrology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Hufelandstr. 55, 45147 Essen, Germany. Electronic address: Johannes.korth@uk-essen.de.
• J. Clin. Virol. 2020 Jul 1; 128: 104437.

BackgroundThe novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is associated with a severe respiratory manifestation, COVID-19, and presents a challenge for healthcare systems worldwide. Healthcare workers are a vulnerable cohort for SARS-CoV-2 infection due to frequent and close contact to patients with COVID-19.Study DesignSerum samples from 316 healthcare workers of the University Hospital Essen, Germany were tested for SARS-CoV-2-IgG antibodies. A questionnaire was used to collect demographic and clinical data. Healthcare workers were grouped depending on the frequency of contact to COVID-19 patients in high-risk-group (n = 244) with daily contact to known or suspected SARS-CoV-2 positive patients, intermediated-risk-group (n = 37) with daily contact to patients without known or suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection at admission and low-risk-group (n = 35) without patient contact.ResultsIn 5 of 316 (1.6 %) healthcare workers SARS-CoV-2-IgG antibodies could be detected. The seroprevalence was higher in the intermediate-risk-group vs. high-risk-group (2/37 (5.4 %) vs. 3/244 (1.2 %), p = 0.13). Four of the five subject were tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 via PCR. One (20 %) subject was not tested via PCR since he was asymptomatic.ConclusionThe overall seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare workers of a tertiary hospital in Germany is low (1.6 %). The data indicate that the local hygiene standard might be effective.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

32 keywords...

hide…