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. 2021 Jan 20;7(1):e40.
doi: 10.1192/bjo.2020.172.

Hospital-wide SARS-CoV-2 antibody screening of staff in a university psychiatric centre in Belgium

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Hospital-wide SARS-CoV-2 antibody screening of staff in a university psychiatric centre in Belgium

Kawtar El Abdellati et al. BJPsych Open. .

Abstract

In this first serosurvey among psychiatric healthcare providers, only 3.2% of a sample of 431 staff members of a Belgian University Psychiatric Centre, screened 3-17 June 2020, had SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G antibodies, which is considerably lower compared with both the general population and other healthcare workers in Belgium. The low seroprevalence was unexpected, given the limited availability of personal protective equipment and the high amount of COVID-19 symptoms reported by staff members. Importantly, exposure at home predicted the presence of antibodies, but exposure at work did not. Measures to prevent transmission from staff to patients are warranted in psychiatric facilities.

Keywords: COVID-19; Psychiatric nursing; infection prevention; mental health services; serology testing.

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Conflict of interest statement

K.E.A., V.C., M.M. and L.D.P. report research funding from University Psychiatric Centre Duffel, during the conduct of the study; V.C. and J.G. report research grants from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Japan, outside the submitted work; M.M. reports research grants from Johnson & Johnson, Belgium, and Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Japan, outside the submitted work. P.V.D. reports research grants for the University of Antwerp from GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Pfizer, Sanofi, Merck, Themis, Osivax, Johnson & Johnson and Abbott; and grants from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), Flemish Government and European Union, all outside the submitted work. H.T. and A.B. have nothing to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Epidemic timeline featuring the timing of source control and transmission prevention measures in the psychiatric hospital University Psychiatric Centre Duffel, as well as the incidence of new COVID-19 hospital admissions in the Antwerp region (source: Sciensano https://epistat.wiv-isp.be/covid/covid-19.html) and community seroprevalence results across four sampling windows: 30 March to 5 April, 20–26 April, 18–24 May and 8–14 June (details available from the authors on request). Surgical masks were not supplied to University Psychiatric Centre Duffel before 25 May 2020, and the first confirmed COVID-19 case was identified on 6 April 2020. RT-PCR, Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; UPCD, University Psychiatric Centre Duffel.

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