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More than 60,000 people participated in the study in Spanish by the Instituto Carlos III and the Spanish equivalent of Statistics Sweden and which has now attracted a lot of attention in Sweden in the last 24 hours.
It showed that in severely affected Spain, around five percent, which is an average, of the population had antibodies. The corresponding figure in the capital Madrid was eleven percent.
The tests were conducted between April 27 and May 11.
– Spain is one of the most affected countries in the world. The fact that they are in such low proportions of estimated people who have gone through the infection is not good news for us, said Tove Fall, professor of molecular epidemiology at Uppsala University, at SVT on Wednesday.
After the report: “We must change the strategy”
But several investigators have questioned the report, and the reaction to the report.
“I really don’t understand why this would be bad news for Sweden,” said Emma Frans, PhD in epidemiology on Thursday.
At the same time, Björn Olsen, professor of infectious diseases, believed that the numbers were reliable and that Sweden now had to change its strategy.
– We must change our strategy, test several people and quarantine the infected. Otherwise, this will continue and even more will die unnecessarily.
However, Anders Björkman, professor of infectious medicine at the Karolinska Institute, believes that the number of antibody carriers in Spain today may be double.
“It was a highly expected result, which today has probably doubled,” he told SVT News, adding that the figure in metropolitan regions may be as high as 20 percent.
Investigator: no warning sign
During the Thursday Night “Stream” at SVT, Sophia Hober, professor of molecular biology at KTH, and Matti Sellberg, professor of immunology at Karolinska, visited.
They are both on the same track as Björkman.
– The important thing is to look at where the spread is more intense and it is in the big cities. According to the test, they are located at 11.5 percent (in Madrid, according to the report) and then we can spend at least 20 percent, perhaps more, so they probably exceed 15 percent in large cities, Sellberg says and points to the test in question, approximately 80 percent of the cases catch up and that number is likely to increase since the tests.
– So maybe an immunity starts to have a little effect. I don’t think this is a warning sign at all.
Sophia Hober thinks the number seems low, but points out several factors that may explain why.
– They are taken in a fairly large country, they are taken throughout the country and the country has also been blocked for a long time. The infection in Spain is very local and these figures show what happened in Spain 2-3 weeks ago, not what happened at this time. The difference between then and now is probably quite large, she says.
She says that at KTH, they performed approximately 12,000 antibody tests, with most of the participants working in hospitals.
– In the groups we have seen, between 10 and 20 percent have antibodies. On the other hand, we don’t know if hospitals are overrepresented or not. It probably depends on where in the hospital you have worked and how well you have had it with protective gear. Parts of a hospital are like a normal workplace too, she says in “Aktuellt”.
Matti Sällberg, professor and vaccine researcher at the Karolinska Institute Laboratory Medicine Department on the development of a corona vaccine.
