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Master of Public Health

SARS-CoV-2 Period Seroprevalence and Related Factors, Hillsborough County, Florida, USA, October 2020-March 2021

AUTHORS

Giuliano AR , Pilon-Thomas S , Schell MJ , Abrahamsen M , Islam JY , Isaacs-Soriano K , Kennedy K , Dukes CW , Whiting J , Rathwell J , Hensel JA , Mangual LN , Schonbrunn E , Bikowitz M , Grassie D , Yang Y , . Emerging infectious diseases. 2022 1 26; 28(3). 556-563

ABSTRACT

Estimating the actual extent of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is challenging because virus test positivity data undercount the actual number and proportion of persons infected. SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence is a marker of past SARS-CoV-2 infection regardless of presence or severity of symptoms and therefore is a robust biomarker of infection period prevalence. We estimated SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among residents of Hillsborough County, Florida, USA, to determine factors independently associated with SARS-CoV-2 antibody status overall and among asymptomatic antibody-positive persons. Among 867 participants, SARS-CoV-2 period prevalence (October 2020-March 2021) was 19.5% (asymptomatic seroprevalence was 8%). Seroprevalence was 2-fold higher than reported SARS-CoV-2 virus test positivity. Factors related to social distancing (e.g., essential worker status, not practicing social distancing, contact with a virus-positive person, and length of contact exposure time) were consistently associated with seroprevalence but did not differ by time since suspected or known infection (<6 months vs. >6 months).

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