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IMAGE: Figure 1. Total SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM positive antibody rate in Hubei province and other provinces with a sample size> 300 people in mainland China. Asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 … see plus
Credit: Duan S, et al. (2021) (CC-BY 2.0)
The city of Wuhan in China was the first place to report COVID-19 in the world and, between December 2019 and May 2020, caused almost two-thirds of all COVID-19 cases in China. Now, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected tropical diseases have tested more than 60,000 healthy people in China for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and concluded that thousands of Wuhan residents were infected with asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 after the infection was believed to be under control in China. .
Rapid antibody tests are used to diagnose current and past infections with the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19; Positive IgG antibodies suggest a previous infection, while IgM antibodies indicate a current or recent infection. Detection of both types of antibodies can provide a better understanding of the number of asymptomatic infections in a population over time. In Wuhan, the number of COVID-19 cases peaked in February 2020 and the city was initially declared free of the disease in late April, although small clusters of cases appeared in later months.
In the new work, Xue-jie Yu, from Wuhan University, China, and her colleagues studied the prevalence of IgG and IgM antibodies in blood samples collected between March 6 and May 3, 2020, from 63,107 people. in China. All people tested were healthy and underwent screening before returning to work.
According to a large number of cases that occurred in Wuhan, the percentage of people with positive antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, approximately 1.68%, was significantly higher than in other regions of China, where the antibody positivity it averaged 0.38%. Furthermore, based on the 0.46% positive IgM rate in Wuhan, researchers estimated that thousands of people in Wuhan were infected asymptomatically between March and May 2020, when no clinical cases of COVID-19 were reported.
“We concluded that … a large number of asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2 existed after the elimination of clinical cases of COVID-19 in the city of Wuhan,” say the researchers. “Avirulent strains of SARS-CoV-2 can still cause symptoms in extremely susceptible individuals and can also revert to a highly virulent strain to reignite the COVID-19 epidemic in China.”
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Peer reviewed; Experimental study; Cells
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Citation: Duan S, Zhou M, Zhang W, Shen J, Qi R, Qin X, et al. (2021) Seroprevalence and asymptomatic carrier status of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan city and elsewhere in China. PLoS Negl Too Say 15 (1): e0008975.
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Money: This study was supported by the China National Natural Science Funds (No. 81971939). The sponsors were not involved in the study design, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.
Conflict of interests: The authors have stated that there are no competing interests.
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