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
. 2023 Jan 5:13:1071204.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1071204. eCollection 2022.

SARS-CoV-2 antibody response after mRNA vaccination in healthcare workers with and without previous COVID-19, a follow-up study from a university hospital in Poland during 6 months 2021

Izabella Owsianka  1   2 , Agnieszka Pac  3 , Estera Jachowicz  2 , Karolina Gutkowska  2 , Wiktor Szczuciński  2 , Barbara Maziarz  4 , Elżbieta Sochacka-Tatara  3 , Piotr Heczko  2 , Wojciech Sydor  5   6 , Barbara Żółtowska  5 , Jadwiga Wójkowska-Mach  2
Affiliations

SARS-CoV-2 antibody response after mRNA vaccination in healthcare workers with and without previous COVID-19, a follow-up study from a university hospital in Poland during 6 months 2021

Izabella Owsianka et al. Front Immunol. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Introduction: Healthcare workers (HCWs) from the beginning of the pandemic have been at risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2, so they were vaccinated as first.

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to determine the level of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in HCWs before and after vaccination with mRNA preparations according to previous COVID- 19.

Patients and methods: The HCWs from the University Hospital in Krakow completed two surveys: the baseline survey before receiving the first dose of vaccine (in January 2021) and the follow-up survey in June 2021. In parallel, two blood samples were collected from each participant at baseline and at follow-up. Total anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels were measured using the ECLIA technique.

Results: At baseline, 41.1% of HCWs had positive antibody test results, and at follow-up, the vaccinated HCWs had almost 100 times higher antibody levels than the unvaccinated HCWs. Participants under 30 years of age had significantly higher antibody levels in June than older HCWs. Among participants with positive antibody test results in January, HCWs who had experienced asymptomatic COVID-19 had more than five times higher antibody levels in June than HCWs self-reported severe COVID-19. In total, 86.9% of HCWs received Comirnaty or Spikevax. The incidence rate of COVID-19 in the unvaccinated vs. vaccinated group was 13 times higher, 20.5% and 1.9% respectively.

Conclusions: These results confirm the effectiveness of vaccination in the prevention of COVID-19 in HCWs. It is worth getting vaccinated regardless of previous infection. Furthermore, vaccination among HCWs under 30 years of age induced more effective antibody production compared to older individuals.

Keywords: COVID-19; COVID-19 immune response; antibody levels; healthcare workers; mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Antibody levels in June according to vaccination status and antibody test result in January 2021 (N=656).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. WHO coronavirus (COVID-19) dashboard. Available at: https://covid19.who.int.
    1. World Health Organization . Draft landscape and tracker of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. Genova, Switzerland: World Health Organization; (2021). Available at: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-cand....
    1. EUROPEAN VACCINATION INFORMATION PORTAL, COVID-19 vaccines. Available at: https://vaccination-info.eu/en/covid-19/covid-19-vaccines.
    1. . WHO health emergency dashboard, Poland situation. Available at: https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/pl.
    1. Alhumaid S., Al Mutair A., Al Alawi Z, Alsuliman M, Ahmed GY, Rabaan AA, et al. . Knowledge of infection prevention and control among healthcare workers and factors influencing compliance: A systematic review. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control (2021) 10(1):86. doi: 10.1186/s13756-021-00957-0 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types