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A biology professor at the University of Évora is doing a serological study in Mora on his own and has already discovered that he had been infected with the new coronavirus months before the August outbreak.
It is a suspicion that I have to have positive tests for the presence of IgG antibodies (Immunoglobulins G) in the blood of people who reported having symptoms in February / March “said Carlos Sinogas, in an interview with the Lusa agency.
The serological tests carried out by the researcher allow the evaluation of the immunity of those who may have been in contact with the virus and consist of collecting a blood sample that proves the presence of IgG and IgM immunoglobulins (a type of protein that protects against the virus).
In the projection, the teacher detected four people, in addition to another person about whom there is “you still doubt”, who have “IgG antibodies”, that is, they were infected, but they did not know and now they remember having had “all the characteristic symptoms of covid-19 in February / March, when there were still no cases in Alentejo”.
An example is that of a man who He guarantees that, since March, he has not been out on the streets, for fear of the virus, he is positive and remembers having symptoms in February / March ”.Said the professor and also a pharmacist, referring to the case of a woman with “significant symptoms” at the same time and who refers to having gone to the health center and then taking “six antibiotics”.
The professor of the Department of Biology of the UÉ, owner of a pharmacy in Mora, where he is from, still does not have definitive results of the study that he decided to carry out, as a result of the outbreak in augustin that village, where 62 people were infected.
The work, started in mid-September, has already covered “almost 300 people”, who took the test consisting of a simple “chopped no finger” how to take a “blood glucose measurement” and apply a drop of blood to a “biosensor”.
This test allows “to know whether or not the person has the antibodies” against the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, explains Carlos Sinogas, anticipating continuing the study, but not for much longer, because “one day another outbreak appears and confuses the the results of this. “
For this work, the university professor reveals that he did not define sampling rules and that the sample he has are “people who wanted” to do the test and who came to his pharmacy through “word of mouth.”
Carlos Sinogas says that “the serological study will continue slowly” in the village of Mora, also taking into account its “economic capacity to pay for the tests”, since “each one costs about 10 euros”.
With the study, the biologist wants to know, among the population of that Alentejo town, who “has or does not have antibodies against the coronavirus” and is, therefore, “immunized”, as well as to compare his results with the data that already exist.
I wanted to know if what happens at the national and international level had the same impact on Mora or not and the frequency of people who were infected and were not detected, although there was a very extensive test. in the village, he says, justifying his motivation.
In addition to the four cases in Mora that he suspected of having the infection at the beginning of the pandemic in Portugal, in February or March, the researcher claims to have detected other people in the town with IgG antibodies and that “they are part of the group” of inhabitants who there are no symptoms and they have not been tested. “
At least 50% “of the people who have now tested positive for HIV may have been infected during the August outbreak, but at that time, they were not tested because they had no symptoms and did not make risky contacts.”, frieze.
The work has also made it possible to identify two couples in which only one element was infected with the new coronavirus.
The researcher thinks, as a result of the study, that 4% of the town’s population has antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, a percentage that is “very far from group immunity to prevent transmission” of the coronavirus.
When the work is finished, Carlos Sinogas says that he intends to publish the results in scientific journals to “give possible contributions to better understand both the infection and the virus.”
