scholarly journals Assessment of Anti-SARS CoV-2 seroprevalence in habitants of Assam (AASSHA): report of the first serosurvey in Assam

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 2490
Author(s):  
Jyotismita Pathak ◽  
Mridusmita Das ◽  
Khalil Siddique
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Blood Samples ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Background: Today, there is a pressing need to identify the proportion of people immune to the infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) so that public health policies can be formulated accordingly for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Keeping this in mind, we designed a serosurvey in Assam with aims to estimate the prevalence of infection as well as the infection to case ratio of the novel coronavirus in Assam.Methods: A total of 9 districts belonging to three different strata of districts were randomly selected for the study. In these selected districts, blood samples were collected from a sample of population and were checked for the antibodies (IgG type). Those testing reactive for the mentioned antibodies were considered to have been infected ever before the onset of the study.Results: A total of 2390 study subjects were tested for the presence of antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2. The proportion of people harboring antibodies against the infection was found to be 23.7 percent.Conclusions: The serosurvey revealed that the proportion of people having antibodies was lower than that required for attaining herd immunity levels in a population. The case to infection ratios reveal that there is a large chunk of population who didn’t know about their infection.

scholarly journals Impact of Vaccination on the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from U.S. States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Chen ◽  
Hanwei Huang ◽  
Jiandong Ju ◽  
Ruoyan Sun ◽  
Jialiang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Sir Model ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Vaccination Programs ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The U.S

Abstract Governments worldwide are implementing mass vaccination programs in an effort to end the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccination program and predicted the path to herd immunity in the U.S. We estimated that vaccination reduced the total number of new cases by 4.4 million (from 33.0 to 28.6 million), prevented approximately 0.12 million hospitalizations (from 0.89 to 0.78 million), and decreased the population infection rate by 1.34 percentage points (from 10.10–8.76%). We built a Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model with vaccination to predict herd immunity. Our model predicts that the U.S. can achieve herd immunity by the last week of July 2021, with a cumulative vaccination coverage of 60.2%. Herd immunity could be achieved earlier with a faster vaccination pace, lower vaccine hesitancy, and higher vaccine effectiveness. These findings improve our understanding of the COVID-19 vaccination and can inform future public health policies.

scholarly journals Coronavirus Pandemic: a major public health crisis for the developed and developing world

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 366-369
Author(s):  
Rooh Ullah ◽  
Muhammad Suleman Rana ◽  
Mehmood Qadir ◽  
Muhammad Usman ◽  
Niaz Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Viral Infection ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
The World ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Day By Day

Pandemic of novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections in China is now become global public health crisis. At present 87.64% of the world is infected by this deadly illness. The risk from this epidemic depends on the nature of the virus, including how well it transmits from person to person, and the complications resulting from this current illness. The novel coronavirus has killed thousands of people in China and other countries as well; its rate of mortality is increasing day by day. There is an urgent need to control the virus by developing vaccine or any other antiviral drugs to save the world from this deadly viral infection.

scholarly journals Low Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Rhode Island Blood Donors Determined using Multiple Serological Assay Formats

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J Nesbitt ◽  
Daniel Jin ◽  
Joseph W Hogan ◽  
Philip A Chan ◽  
Melissa J Simon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
Blood Donors ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Antibody Testing ◽  
Serological Tests ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Seropositive Rate

Epidemic projections and public health policies addressing Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 have been implemented without data reporting on the seroconversion of the population since scalable antibody testing has only recently become available. We measured the percentage of severe acute respiratory syndrome- Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) seropositive individuals from 2,008 blood donors drawn in the state of Rhode Island (RI). We utilized multiple antibody testing platforms, including lateral flow immunoassays (LFAs), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and high throughput serological assays (HTSAs). We report than an estimated seropositive rate of RI blood donors of approximately 0.6% existed in April-May of 2020. These data imply that seroconversion, and thus infection, is likely not widespread within this population. Daily new case rates peaked in RI in late April 2020. We conclude that IgG LFAs and HTSAs are suitable to conduct seroprevalence assays in random populations. More studies will be needed using validated serological tests to improve the precision and report the kinetic progression of seroprevalence estimates.

scholarly journals Prevalence of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Poznań, Poland, after the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 541
Author(s):  
Dagny Lorent ◽  
Rafal Nowak ◽  
Carolina Roxo ◽  
Elzbieta Lenartowicz ◽  
Aleksandra Makarewicz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Igg Antibodies ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

In comparison to other European countries, during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Poland reported a relatively low number of confirmed cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. To estimate the scale of the pandemic in Poland, a serosurvey of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 was performed after the first wave of COVID-19 in Europe (March–May 2020). Within this study, we collected samples from 28 July to 24 September 2020 and, based on the ELISA results, we found that 1.67% (25/1500, 95% CI 1.13–2.45) of the Poznan (Poland) metropolitan area’s population had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 after the first wave of COVID-19. However, the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies was confirmed with immunoblotting in 56% (14/25) samples, which finally resulted in a decrease in seroprevalence, i.e., 0.93% (14/1500, 95% CI 0.56–1.56). The positive anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG results were associated with age, occupation involving constant contact with people, travelling abroad, non-compliance with epidemiological recommendations and direct contact with the novel coronavirus. Our findings confirm the low SARS-CoV-2 incidence in Poland and imply that the population had little herd immunity heading into the second and third wave of the pandemic, and therefore, that herd immunity contributed little to preventing the high numbers of SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19-related deaths in Poland during these subsequent waves.

scholarly journals Low Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Rhode Island Blood Donors Determined Using Multiple Serological Assay Formats

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Nesbitt ◽  
Daniel P. Jin ◽  
Joseph W. Hogan ◽  
Philip A Chan ◽  
Melissa J Simon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Statistical Method ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
Blood Donors ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Antibody Testing ◽  
Serological Tests ◽  
Public Health Policies

Abstract Background: Epidemic projections and public health policies addressing Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 have been implemented without data reporting on the seroconversion of the population since scalable antibody testing has only recently become available. Methods: We measured the percentage of severe acute respiratory syndrome- Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) seropositive individuals from 2,008 blood donors drawn in the state of Rhode Island (RI). We utilized multiple antibody testing platforms, including lateral flow immunoassays (LFAs), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and high throughput serological assays (HTSAs). To estimate seroprevalence, we utilized the Bayesian statistical method to adjust for sensitivity and specificity of the commercial tests used.Results: We report than an estimated seropositive rate of RI blood donors of approximately 0.6% existed in April-May of 2020. Daily new case rates peaked in RI in late April 2020. We found HTSAs and LFAs were positively correlated with ELISA assays to detect antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 in blood donors. Conclusions: These data imply that seroconversion, and thus infection, is likely not widespread within this population. We conclude that IgG LFAs and HTSAs are suitable to conduct seroprevalence assays in random populations. More studies will be needed using validated serological tests to improve the precision and report the kinetic progression of seroprevalence estimates.

scholarly journals SARS-CoV-2 genomic monitoring in the São Paulo State unveils new sublineages of the AY.43 strain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Ranieri J. Lima ◽  
Gabriela Ribeiro ◽  
Vincent Louis Viala ◽  
Loyze Paola Oliveira Lima ◽  
Antonio Jorge Martins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Phylogenetic Tree ◽  
Viral Fitness ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Paulo State ◽  
The World ◽  
Continuous Description ◽  
Potential Impact

Delta VOC is highly diverse and more than 120 sublineages have been identified in Pango lineages with the continuous description of emerging ones. Brazil is now one of the most vaccinated countries against SARS-CoV-2 in the world which can enhance the emergence of viral mutations related to improved viral fitness. In this study, we identified two novel sublineages of the AY.43 lineage which were classified as AY.43.1 and AY.43.2 as observed on the specific clustering on the obtained phylogenetic tree. The novel sublineages were defined by the following characteristic nonsynonymous mutations ORF1ab:A4133V and ORF3a:T14I for AY.43.1 and ORF1ab:G1155C for AY.43.2. The majority of the analyzed sequences of both lineages were Brazilian, which shows that probably these two emerging sublineages have Brazilian origin. It is still unknown how these two sublineages are disseminated in S&atildeo Paulo State and Brazil and their potential impact on the ongoing vaccination process. However, the performed study reinforces the importance of the SARS-CoV-2 genome monitoring for timely identification of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants which can impact the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and public health policies

Against the Public Goods Conception of Public Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-233
Author(s):  
Justin Bernstein ◽  
Pierce Randall
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
Moral Disagreement ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract Public health ethicists face two difficult questions. First, what makes something a matter of public health? While protecting citizens from outbreaks of communicable diseases is clearly a matter of public health, is the same true of policies that aim to reduce obesity, gun violence or political corruption? Second, what should the scope of the government’s authority be in promoting public health? May government enact public health policies some citizens reasonably object to or policies that are paternalistic? Recently, some theorists have attempted to address these questions by arguing that something is a matter of public health if and only if it involves a health-related public good, such as clean water or herd immunity. Relatedly, they have argued that appeals to the promotion of public health should only be used to justify the provision of health-related public goods. This public goods conception of public health (PGC) is meant to enjoy advantages over its rivals in three respects: it provides a better definition of public health than rival views, it respects moral disagreement, and it avoids licensing objectionably paternalistic public health policies. We argue, however, that the PGC does just as poorly, or worse, than its rivals in all three respects.

The genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Palestine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nouar Qutob ◽  
Zaidoun Salah ◽  
Damien Richard ◽  
Hisham Darwish ◽  
Husam Sallam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Public Health Burden ◽  
Genomic Epidemiology ◽  
Health Burden ◽  
The World ◽  
Significant Public Health ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Uk

AbstractSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, continues to cause significant public health burden and disruption globally. Genomic epidemiology approaches point to most countries in the world having experienced many independent introductions of SARS-CoV-2 during the early stages of the pandemic. However, this situation may change with local lockdown policies and restrictions on travel leading to the emergence of more geographically structured viral populations and lineages transmitting locally. Here, we report the first SARS-CoV-2 genomes from Palestine sampled from early March, when the first cases were observed, through to August of 2020. SARS-CoV-2 genomes from Palestine fall across the diversity of the global phylogeny, consistent with at least nine independent introductions into the region. We identify one locally predominant lineage in circulation represented by 50 Palestinian SARS-CoV-2, grouping with isolated viral samples from patients in Israel and the UK. We estimate the age of introduction of this lineage to 05/02/2020 (16/01/2020 - 19/02/2020), suggesting SARS-CoV-2 was already in circulation in Palestine predating its first detection in Bethlehem in early March. Our work highlights the value of ongoing genomic surveillance and monitoring to reconstruct the epidemiology of COVID-19 at both local and global scales.

scholarly journals Impact of vaccination on the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from U.S. states

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Chen ◽  
Hanwei Huang ◽  
Jiandong Ju ◽  
Ruoyan Sun ◽  
Jialiang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Vaccination Programs ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

Governments worldwide are implementing mass vaccination programs in an effort to end the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Although the approved vaccines exhibited high efficacies in randomized controlled trials, their population effectiveness in the real world remains less clear, thus casting uncertainty over the prospects for herd immunity. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccination program and predicted the path to herd immunity in the U.S. Using data from 12 October 2020 to 7 March 2021, we estimated that vaccination reduced the total number of new cases by 4.4 million (from 33.0 to 28.6 million), prevented approximately 0.12 million hospitalizations (from 0.89 to 0.78 million), and decreased the population infection rate by 1.34 percentage points (from 10.10% to 8.76%). We then built a Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model with vaccination to predict herd immunity. Our model predicts that if the average vaccination pace between January and early March 2021 (2.08 doses per 100 people per week) is maintained, the U.S. can achieve herd immunity by the last week of July 2021, with a cumulative vaccination coverage of 60.2%. Herd immunity could be achieved earlier with a faster vaccination pace, lower vaccine hesitancy, or higher vaccine effectiveness. These findings improve our understanding of the impact of COVID-19 vaccines and can inform future public health policies regarding vaccination, especially in countries with ongoing vaccination programs.

scholarly journals Low Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Rhode Island blood donors during may 2020 as determined using multiple serological assay formats

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Nesbitt ◽  
Daniel P. Jin ◽  
Joseph W. Hogan ◽  
Jenny Yang ◽  
Haidee Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Statistical Method ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
Blood Donors ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Antibody Testing ◽  
Serological Tests ◽  
Public Health Policies

Abstract Background Epidemic projections and public health policies addressing Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 have been implemented without data reporting on the seroconversion of the population since scalable antibody testing has only recently become available. Methods We measured the percentage of severe acute respiratory syndrome- Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) seropositive individuals from 2008 blood donors drawn in the state of Rhode Island (RI). We utilized multiple antibody testing platforms, including lateral flow immunoassays (LFAs), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) and high throughput serological assays (HTSAs). To estimate seroprevalence, we utilized the Bayesian statistical method to adjust for sensitivity and specificity of the commercial tests used. Results We report than an estimated seropositive rate of RI blood donors of approximately 0.6% existed in April–May of 2020. Daily new case rates peaked in RI in late April 2020. We found HTSAs and LFAs were positively correlated with ELISA assays to detect antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 in blood donors. Conclusions These data imply that seroconversion, and thus infection, is likely not widespread within this population. We conclude that IgG LFAs and HTSAs are suitable to conduct seroprevalence assays in random populations. More studies will be needed using validated serological tests to improve the precision and report the kinetic progression of seroprevalence estimates.

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