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. 2022 Jun 6;13(1):3128.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30482-6.

Cross-sectional seroprevalence surveys of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in children in Germany, June 2020 to May 2021

Anna-Lisa Sorg  1   2 , Leon Bergfeld  3 , Marietta Jank  4 , Victor Corman  3 , Ilia Semmler  3 , Anna Goertz  4 , Andreas Beyerlein  1 , Eva Verjans  5 , Norbert Wagner  5 , Horst Von Bernuth  6 , Fabian Lander  7 , Katharina Weil  8 , Markus Hufnagel  9 , Ute Spiekerkoetter  9 , Cho-Ming Chao  10   11 , Lutz Naehrlich  11 , Ania Carolina Muntau  12 , Ulf Schulze-Sturm  12 , Gesine Hansen  13 , Martin Wetzke  13 , Anna-Maria Jung  14 , Tim Niehues  15 , Susanne Fricke-Otto  15 , Ulrich Von Both, Johannes Huebner  16 , Uta Behrends  17 , Johannes G Liese  18 , Christian Schwerk  4 , Christian Drosten #  3 , Ruediger Von Kries #  19 , Horst Schroten #  4
Affiliations

Cross-sectional seroprevalence surveys of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in children in Germany, June 2020 to May 2021

Anna-Lisa Sorg et al. Nat Commun. .

Abstract

The rate of SARS-CoV-2 infections in children remains unclear due to many asymptomatic cases. We present a study of cross-sectional seroprevalence surveys of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG in 10,358 children recruited in paediatric hospitals across Germany from June 2020 to May 2021. Seropositivity increased from 2.0% (95% CI 1.6, 2.5) to 10.8% (95% CI 8.7, 12.9) in March 2021 with little change up to May 2021. Rates increased by migrant background (2.8%, 4.4% and 7.8% for no, one and two parents born outside Germany). Children under three were initially 3.6 (95% CI 2.3, 5.7) times more likely to be seropositive with levels equalising later. The ratio of seropositive cases per recalled infection decreased from 8.6 to 2.8. Since seropositivity exceeds the rate of recalled infections considerably, serologic testing may provide a more valid estimate of infections, which is required to assess both the spread and the risk for severe outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infections.

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Conflict of interest statement

The study centres received academic research funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for study planning, study management and reimbursement for the assay of this study. V.C. reported a patent on methods and reagents for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection (Pub number 20210190797) of Charité and Euroimmun GmbH.H.v.B. reported receiving honoraria for ongoing reports on the safety profile of an IgG-product from Octapharma GmBH, honoraria for lectures from CSL Behring, honoraria for advisory boards from Takeda and Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (publ) (SobiTM) and the ‘treatment guideline for Primary ‘immunodeficiencies’ is under his unpaid leadership. L.N. reported institutional fees for study participation by the German Centre for Lung Research, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim. He participates on Trial Steering Committee for CF STORM and is the medical leader of the German CF-registry, and the pharmacovigilance study manager of the ECFSPR.G.H. reported receiving consulting fees from Sanofi GmbH and honoraria for lectures from MedUpdate and Abbvie.No other disclosures were reported.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Distribution of study centres.
14 children’s hospitals, spread all over Germany, took part in the SARS-CoV-2 study. In total 10,358 pedaitric patients participated. The proportion of recruitment per study centre range from 3.6% (373/10358) to 13.4% (1387/10358). *in Munich, two separate study centres recruited—Paediatric Department of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University 10.3% and the Technical University Munich 3.1%.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Trends in SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence from June 2020 to May 2021 in children in Germany.
Two-month-average point estimates of the prevalence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 immunoglobulin G antibodies as determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in blood samples from 10,358 paediatric study participants. The black dots display the respective point estimates of the prevalences and the wkiskers (lines at the black dots) the 95% confidence intervals of the point estimates. The predicted probability according to a b-spline regression model (grey solid line) with 95% confidence band (grey dashed lines).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Age group-specific seroprevalence etimates in different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.
Prevalence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) immunoglobulin G antibodies as determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in blood samples from in total 10,358 paediatric study participants in the different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany stratified by age category. The height of the boxes displays the respective point estimates of the prevalences and the wiskers indicates the upper and lower 95% confidence limits of these point estimates.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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