A prospective study of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection among individuals involved in academic research under limited operations during the COVID-19 pandemic Public Deposited
- Creator
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Pettifor, Audrey
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
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DiPrete, Bethany L.
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
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Shook-Sa, Bonnie E.
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Biostatistics
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Premkumar, Lakshmanane
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
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Kuczynski, Kriste
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Social Medicine
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Dittmer, Dirk
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
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Aiello, Allison
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
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Wallet, Shannon
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
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Maile, Robert
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
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Tan, Joyce
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Genetics
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Jadi, Ramesh
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
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Pluta, Linda
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
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de Silva, Aravinda M.
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
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Weber, David J.
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
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Kim, Min
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
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Seña, Arlene C.
- Affiliation: School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
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Jones, Corbin D.
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology
- Abstract
- Background Early in the pandemic, transmission risk from asymptomatic infection was unclear, making it imperative to monitor infection in workplace settings. Further, data on SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence within university populations has been limited. Methods We performed a longitudinal study of University research employees on campus July-December 2020. We conducted questionnaires on COVID-19 risk factors, RT-PCR testing, and SARS-CoV-2 serology using an in-house spike RBD assay, laboratory-based Spike NTD assay, and standard nucleocapsid platform assay. We estimated prevalence and cumulative incidence of seroconversion with 95% confidence intervals using the inverse of the Kaplan-Meier estimator. Results 910 individuals were included in this analysis. At baseline, 6.2% (95% CI 4.29–8.19) were seropositive using the spike RBD assay; four (0.4%) were seropositive using the nucleocapsid assay, and 44 (4.8%) using the Spike NTD assay. Cumulative incidence was 3.61% (95% CI: 2.04–5.16). Six asymptomatic individuals had positive RT-PCR results. Conclusions Prevalence and incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections were low; however, differences in target antigens of serological tests provided different estimates. Future research on appropriate methods of serological testing in unvaccinated and vaccinated populations is needed. Frequent RT-PCR testing of asymptomatic individuals is required to detect acute infections, and repeated serosurveys are beneficial for monitoring subclinical infection.
- Date of publication
- 2022
- Keyword
- DOI
- Identifier
- Resource type
- Article
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- License
- Attribution 4.0 International
- Journal title
- PLOS ONE
- Journal volume
- 17
- Journal issue
- 4
- Page start
- e0267353
- Language
- English
- Version
- Publisher
- ISSN
- 1932-6203
- Parents:
- In Collection:
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