Low SARS-CoV-2 infection rates and high vaccine-induced immunity among German healthcare workers at the end of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| Abstract |
In this longitudinal cohort study, we assessed the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) seroconversion rates and analyzed the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine-induced immunity of 872 hospital workers at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf between May 11 and May 31, 2021. The overall seroprevalence of anti-NC-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was 4.7% (n = 41), indicating low SARS-CoV-2 infection rates and persistent effectiveness of hospital-wide infection control interventions during the second and third wave of the pandemic. In total, 92.7% (n = 808) out of the entire study cohort, 98.2% (n = 325) of those who had been vaccinated once and all 393 individuals who had been vaccinated twice had detectable anti-S1-RBD-SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers and no significant differences in vaccine-induced immune response were detected between male and female individuals and between different age groups. Vaccinated study participants with detectable anti-NC-SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers (n = 30) developed generally higher anti-S1-RBD-SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers compared to anti-NC-SARS-CoV-2 negative individuals (n = 694) (median titer: 7812 vs. 345 BAU/ml, p < 0.0001). Furthermore, study participants who received heterologous vaccination with AZD1222 followed by an mRNA vaccine showed markedly higher anti-S1-RBD-SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers than individuals who received two doses of an mRNA vaccine or two doses of AZD1222 (median titer: AZD1222/AZD1222: 1069 BAU/ml, mRNA/mRNA: 1388 BAU/ml, AZD1222/mRNA: 9450 BAU/ml; p < 0.0001). Our results indicate that infection control interventions were generally effective in preventing nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and that COVID-19 vaccines can elicit strong humoral responses in the majority of a real-world cohort of hospital workers.
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| Authors | Thomas Theo Brehm, Michelle Thompson, Felix Ullrich, Dorothee Schwinge, Marylyn M Addo, Anthea Spier, Johannes K Knobloch, Martin Aepfelbacher, Ansgar W Lohse, Marc Lütgehetmann, Julian Schulze Zur Wiesch |
| Journal | International journal of hygiene and environmental health (Int J Hyg Environ Health) Vol. 238 Pg. 113851 (09 2021) ISSN: 1618-131X [Electronic] Germany |
| PMID | 34601375 (Publication Type: Journal Article) |
| Copyright | Copyright © 2021 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. |
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