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The report distributed by Santara Clinics states that the number of subjects in Lithuania reached three hundred and included doctors and other personnel who worked on the pediatric profile (infectious diseases, pediatric diseases, oncohematological diseases, admission-emergency departments) of the University Hospital of Vilnius Santara Clinics. children and their relatives with daily fever, suspected coronavirus infection or.
In addition to Lithuania, physicians from Ireland, Austria, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Latvia, Finland and Romania, who also work in pediatric health care institutions, participated in the study.
The test was carried out using serological tests and the blood samples were sent to the reference laboratory of the World Health Organization (WHO) in London. When an inconclusive result was obtained, the samples were retested in a more sensitive manner.
The head of the Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases of the VUL Santara Pediatric Clinic Center, dr. Inga Ivaškevičienė says that although the results for all countries are not yet available, the research carried out in Lithuania already allows us to draw some important conclusions.
The results showed that only two out of three hundred people had antibodies to the COVID-19 coronavirus in their blood, and only those people had indicated in their questionnaires that the infection had been confirmed in the laboratory.
Second, almost all the doctors in the study did not have antibodies to the coronavirus, which means they are susceptible to this infection and can get sick.
Like dr. Inga Ivaškevičienė, all respondents were given a questionnaire, during which they had to answer the question whether a person has the slightest suspicion that they may have contracted this infection. Some doctors answered affirmatively to this question, noting that this year, before the COVID-19 epidemic was announced, they experienced specific symptoms characteristic of coronavirus infection: fever, cough, loss of smell, taste, etc. Others claimed to have experienced flu-like symptoms or other viral illnesses in January and February, while others noted that they were skiing in Europe or traveling to other parts of the world at the time. Unfortunately, the investigation of their suspicions did not confirm, no antibodies were detected in the blood of those people.
“This study is important in several respects,” says Dr. I. Ivaškevičienė. – First, the asymptomatic course of the disease is not as common as society tends to believe. Second, almost all the doctors in the study did not have antibodies to the coronavirus, which means they are susceptible to this infection and can get sick. Third, properly used personal protective equipment works very well. This means that we are on the right track by paying close attention to infection control measures in healthcare facilities and in society ”.
Pediatric infectious diseases doctor dr. Inga Ivaškevičienė emphasizes that the research was carried out very competently, with reliable partners, and that the laboratory did its job perfectly. Although doctors are a specific group of subjects and do not reflect society as a whole, it is too early to conclude that more and more people are gaining immunity because they suffer from an asymptomatic form.
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