A Prospective Study of Asymptomatic Sars-Cov-2 Infection among Individuals Involved in Academic Research under Limited Operations during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Citation

Pettifor, Audrey E.; DiPrete, Bethany L.; Shook-Sa, Bonnie E.; Premkumar, Lakshmanane; Kuczynski, Kriste; Dittmer, Dirk P.; Aiello, Allison E.; Wallet, Shannon; Maile, Robert; & Tan, Joyce, et al. (2022). A Prospective Study of Asymptomatic Sars-Cov-2 Infection among Individuals Involved in Academic Research under Limited Operations during the COVID-19 Pandemic. PLOS ONE, 17(4), e0267353. PMCID: PMC9037948

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Early in the pandemic, transmission risk from asymptomatic infection was unclear, making it imperative to monitor infection in workplace settings. Further, data on SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence within university populations has been limited.
METHODS: We performed a longitudinal study of University research employees on campus July-December 2020. We conducted questionnaires on COVID-19 risk factors, RT-PCR testing, and SARS-CoV-2 serology using an in-house spike RBD assay, laboratory-based Spike NTD assay, and standard nucleocapsid platform assay. We estimated prevalence and cumulative incidence of seroconversion with 95% confidence intervals using the inverse of the Kaplan-Meier estimator.
RESULTS: 910 individuals were included in this analysis. At baseline, 6.2% (95% CI 4.29-8.19) were seropositive using the spike RBD assay; four (0.4%) were seropositive using the nucleocapsid assay, and 44 (4.8%) using the Spike NTD assay. Cumulative incidence was 3.61% (95% CI: 2.04-5.16). Six asymptomatic individuals had positive RT-PCR results.
CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence and incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections were low; however, differences in target antigens of serological tests provided different estimates. Future research on appropriate methods of serological testing in unvaccinated and vaccinated populations is needed. Frequent RT-PCR testing of asymptomatic individuals is required to detect acute infections, and repeated serosurveys are beneficial for monitoring subclinical infection.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267353

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2022

Journal Title

PLOS ONE

Author(s)

Pettifor, Audrey E.
DiPrete, Bethany L.
Shook-Sa, Bonnie E.
Premkumar, Lakshmanane
Kuczynski, Kriste
Dittmer, Dirk P.
Aiello, Allison E.
Wallet, Shannon
Maile, Robert
Tan, Joyce
Jadi, Ramesh
Pluta, Linda
de Silva, Aravinda M.
Weber, David J.
Kim, Min K.
Seña, Arlene C.
Jones, Corbin D.

Article Type

Regular

PMCID

PMC9037948

Continent/Country

United States of America

State

North Carolina

ORCiD

Pettifor - 0000-0002-3387-0817
Aiello - 0000-0001-7029-2537