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TUESDAY, Dec. 29, 2020 (HealthDay News) – Healthcare workers with anti-peak or anti-nucleocapsid immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies have a reduced risk of reinfection of severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2 ) in the next six months, according to a study published online Dec. 23 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Sheila F. Lumley, BM, B.Ch., of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the UK, and colleagues examined the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in seropositive and seronegative healthcare workers attending testing from Oxford University Hospitals staff. A total of 12,541 healthcare workers participated and were followed for 31 weeks after anti-spike and anti-nucleocapsid IgG measurements.
The researchers found that 11,364 healthcare workers had negative antibody results and 1,265 had positive antibody results, including 88 with seroconversion during follow-up. In total, 223 anti-spike-seronegative healthcare workers had a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test: 100 and 123 during screening while asymptomatic and symptomatic, respectively. Two anti-spike-seropositive healthcare workers had a positive PCR test, and both were asymptomatic when evaluated (1.09 and 0.13 per 10,000 risk days, respectively; adjusted incidence rate index, 0.11). None of the workers with anti-spike antibodies had symptomatic infections. The results were similar when baseline was determined using the anti-nucleocapsid IgG assay alone or in combination with the anti-spike IgG assay.
“The presence of anti-spike antibodies was associated with a substantially reduced risk of PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection during 31 weeks of follow-up,” the authors write.
Several authors revealed economic ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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