Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Nov 2;21(1):1131.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-021-06814-0.

Seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and risk factors among healthy blood donors in Luanda, Angola

Cruz S Sebastião  1   2   3 , Manuela Galangue  1 , Celestina Gaston  1 , Rui Van-Dunen  1 , Joltim Quivinja  1 , Emiliana Lunbungululo  4 , Domingos Alfredo  5 , Alberto Sozinho  4 , Alice Teixeira  5 , Eunice Manico  4 , Deodete Machado  4 , António Mateus  1 , Zinga David  1 , Joana Paixão  1 , Zoraima Neto  1 , Jocelyne Neto de Vasconcelos  1   2 , Joana Morais  6   7
Affiliations

Seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and risk factors among healthy blood donors in Luanda, Angola

Cruz S Sebastião et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: SARS-CoV-2 emerged in China and spread throughout the world due to its rapid transmission. The exposure rate in the healthy population is unknown, mainly in resource-limited countries. Herein, we estimated the seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and risk factors among blood donors in Luanda, the capital city of Angola.

Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted with 343 blood donors. Chi-square and logistic regression were calculated to predict the independent variable for SARS-CoV-2 infection and deemed significant when p < 0.05.

Results: Seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 was 4.7%. Positivity rates varied to age groups (3.5-14.3%), gender (0-5%), area of residence (3.1-.6%), educational level (5.1-10.2%), occupation (4.4-7.7%), and the blood donor category (2.0-5.1%). Past and recent infections were detected in 3.2% and 1.5%, respectively. Blood donors under the age of 20 years (OR: 4.58, p = 0.241) and from non-urbanized areas (OR: 1.86, p = 0.293) presented a high risk related to infection. The infection was higher in blood group A and lower in blood group O. The risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection has increased from January 2020 (OR: 0.03, p = 0.001) to August 2020 (OR: 0.57, p = 0.426).

Conclusions: We provide an estimate of the exposure of healthy blood donors in Luanda. Also, we detected anti-SARS-CoV-2 in January 2020, indicating that the SARS-CoV-2 could have been imported during the first month of 2020. Further studies should be performed to assess the exposure rate in different groups from Angola.

Keywords: Angola; Blood donors; COVID-19; Luanda; SARS-CoV-2; Seroprevalence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

References

    1. Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, Li X, Yang B, Song J, et al. A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:727–33. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001017. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Li Q, Guan X, Wu P, Wang X, Zhou L, Tong Y, et al. Early Transmission Dynamics in Wuhan, China, of Novel Coronavirus–Infected Pneumonia. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:1199–207. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001316. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update. WHO. 2020; November:1;4. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/2....
    1. Ministério da Saúde de Angola. Pandemia da COVID-19 em Angola. Boletin informativo 269: 16 de outubro de 2020. 2020;:58–9.
    1. World Health Organization. Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 6 April 2021. World Heal Organ. 2021; December:1–3. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/w....

Substances

LinkOut - more resources