Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Employees of Three Hospitals of a Secondary Care Hospital Network in Germany and an Associated Fire Brigade: Results of a Repeated Cross-Sectional Surveillance Study Over 1 Year

Anke Hildebrandt, Oktay Hökelekli, Lutz Uflacker, Henrik Rudolf, Michael Paulussen and Sören G. Gatermann
Additional contact information
Anke Hildebrandt: St. Vincenz Hospital, Department of Internal Medicine I, 45711 Datteln, Germany
Oktay Hökelekli: St. Vincenz Hospital, Department of Internal Medicine I, 45711 Datteln, Germany
Lutz Uflacker: St. Vincenz Hospital, Department of Internal Medicine I, 45711 Datteln, Germany
Henrik Rudolf: Institute for Biostatistics and Informatics in Medicine and Ageing Research, University Medical Center Rostock, 18057 Rostock, Germany
Michael Paulussen: Vestische Kinder- und Jugendklinik, Witten/Herdecke University, 45711 Datteln, Germany
Sören G. Gatermann: National Reference Center for Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacteria, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are playing a vital role in the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This study investigated how infection spreads within three local hospitals and an associated fire brigade in Germany by testing employees for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies over one year. The three observational periods corresponded to the initial three pandemic waves: first wave: June–September 2020, second wave: October 2020–January 2021, and third wave: February–June 2021. We analysed 3285 serum samples of 1842 employees, which represents 65.7% of all employees. Altogether, 13.2% employees were seropositive: 194/1411 HCWs (13.7%) and 49/431 non-HCWs (11.4%) with a clear increase of seroprevalence from the first (1.1%) to the second (13.2%) and third (29.3%) pandemic wave. HCWs presumably had an additional occupational risk for infection in the second and third wave due to an increase of infection pressure with more COVID-19 patients treated, showing possible weak points in the recommended infection prevention strategy.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus; COVID-19; antibodies; healthcare workers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/4/2402/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/4/2402/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:4:p:2402-:d:753359

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().