Tıp Fakültesi / Faculty of Medicine

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11727/1403

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    IgG Neutralizing Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 Among Healthcare Workers Who Frequently Encountered Patients with COVID-19
    (2022) Yesilagac, Hasan; Aliskan, Hikmet Eda; Gumus, Hatice Hale; Odemis, Ilker; Unsal, Zuhal Ekici; 0000-0003-2638-0163; 0000-0001-9071-9606; AAD-1638-2019; AAJ-2108-2021
    Introduction: Since the Severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) first emerged in Wuhan, on 12 December 2019, it has spread rapidly across the world and developed into a pandemic. As healthcare workers are frequently in contact with Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients, they can be affected more often than the general population. In this study we aimed to investigate the SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and the IgG antibody levels among healthcare workers who frequently encountered COVID-19 patients in our hospital.Materials and Methods: In total, 182 healthcare workers were identified from database and their data was retrospectively analyzed. Participants with previous PCR positivity, pregnant, autoimmune disease history or immunosuppressive treatment history were excluded. Participants were grouped depending on their frequency of contact with COVID-19 patients (high and medium risk). All the samples were tested simultaneously for anti-SARS-CoV-2-IgG antibodies by the ELISA method. A chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables. A t-test and an ANOVA test were carried out to where appropriate.Results: Serological testing of 182 HCWs exposed to SARS-CoV-2 patients illustrated that 13.2% of them (24 out of 182) might have experienced an asymptomatic or subclinical SARS-CoV-2 infection. High risk participants, anosmia, and ageusia were statistically significant risk factors. The rate of detection of antibody positivity among doctors (p=0.030) and patients with anosmia, and ageusia (p=0.047) were found significantly higher than the others. In addition, SARS-CoV-2 antibody ratio results were found significantly higher in the groups of high risk participants (p=0.046), patients with clinical signs (p=0.008), myalgia (p=0.039), anosmia, and ageusia (p=0.025), respectively.Conclusion: Our study showed that serological testing is useful for determining asymptomatic or subclinical infections prevelance of SARS-CoV-2 among those with close contact with COVID-19 patients. Serological tests can be helpful determining the prevelance COVID-19 infection, especially among the HCWs.
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    Antibody Screening and Risk Assessment of Healthcare Professionals in the COVID-19 Pandemic
    (2021) Gumus, Hatice Hale; Demiroglu, Yusuf Ziya; Aliskan, Hikmet Eda; Odemis, İlker; Ceylan, Ozgur; Pocan, Ahmet Gurhan; Karagum, Ozlem; 0000-0001-9060-3195; 0000-0003-2638-0163; 0000-0002-9866-2197; 0000-0003-2638-0163; 0000-0001-6910-7250; 0000-0003-0681-8375; 0000-0003-3128-1602; 0000-0001-9071-9606; 34416802; AAE-2282-2021; AFK-3690-2022; AAX-9250-2021; AAZ-9711-2021; AAG-2486-2022; AAK-8276-2021; U-4084-2017; AAE-6310-2021; AAJ-2108-2021
    Globally 364102 healthcare professionals have been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and 1253 of them died until 15 January 2021. Healthcare professionals serving at the forefront of combating the pandemic are in the high risk group. In our country, the data about coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) among healthcare professionals are limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG seroprevalence in healthcare professionals, to evaluate the risks they encountered during work, and to examine their relationships with antibody positivity. A total of 572 healthcare professionals serving in various units of our hospital participated in our study and the presence of anti-nucleocapsid IgG was investigated by chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (SARS-CoV-2 IgG test, Abbott Laboratories Diagnostics, USA) method in serum samples collected between May 18, 2020 and June 30, 2020. The demographic characteristics, medical history, work conditions, medical procedures performed and possible risk factors were questioned with a questionnaire form. The average age of the participants was 33.5 +/- 9.2 (19-61) years, and 62.9% (360/572) of them were women. In our study, the anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG seroprevalence was 3.7% (21/572). The association of the antibody positivity with age, gender and occupational status was not statistically significant (p> 0.05). Comorbid diseases which were significantly higher in seropositive healthcare professionals were hypertension (19%) and diabetes mellitus (14.3%) (p< 0.05). It was observed that antibody positivity was significantly higher in healthcare professionals working in high (52.4%) and medium risk (33.3%) areas, those who treat and/or examine patients with suspicious or positive COVID-19 (66.7%) and those who spend more than 30 minutes in COVID-19 patient rooms (76%) (p< 0.05). The symptoms associated with seropositivity in healthcare workers with a history of symptoms (46%) were loss of smell (23.5%), loss of taste (20.0%) and respiratory distress (16.7%) (p< 0.05). It was observed that the probability of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 increased 12 times if there was a colleague with COVID-19 in the hospital, four times if there was a patient in the house/lodging and six times if there was an infected person in the social environment (p< 0.05). The rate of those who had the flu vaccine among the participants was 10.8% (62/572) and 9.7% of them were found to be anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG positive (p< 0.05, 95% CI= 1.31-9.48). The seropositivity was significantly higher in non-smokers (4.8 %) compared to smokers (0.0%) (p< 0.05). In our study, it was determined that the rate of seropositivity was 12 times higher in healthcare professionals who stated that they received hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis due to risky contact compared to those who did not receive prophylaxis (p< 0.05, 95% CI= 4.11-40.64). The ratio of the personnel who answered "always" to the frequency of wearing gloves, masks, goggles/face shields and overalls was 85.7%, 96.9%, 62.1% and 65.4%, respectively. In conclusion, regular and large-scale sero-epidemiological screening of healthcare professionals in the COVID-19 pandemic can contribute to the control of the pandemic by providing a better understanding of transmission dynamics and risk factors.