TY - JOUR
T1 - SARS-CoV-2 antibodies persist up to 12 months after natural infection in healthy employees working in non-medical contact-intensive professions
AU - Mioch, Dymphie
AU - Vanbrabant, Leonard
AU - Reimerink, Johan
AU - Kuiper, Sandra
AU - Lodder, Esther
AU - van den Bijllaardt, Wouter
AU - Kluytmans, Jan
AU - Wissing, Michel D
AU - Augustijn, Hans
AU - Bartels, Marit
AU - van Jaarsveld, Cornelia H M
AU - Leemans, Manon
AU - van Nierop, Peter
AU - van Riet, Natascha
AU - Raaijmakers, Lieke
AU - Reisiger, Els
AU - Reusken, Chantal
AU - Rietveld, Ariene
AU - Salewicz, Sandra
N1 - Funding Information:
The COco-study receives financial support from the regional public health service (GGD) of West-Brabant and the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). These are government-funded, non-commercial organizations, and they did not influence any aspect of the content of the study.
Funding Information:
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. The COco-study receives financial support from the regional public health service (GGD) of West-Brabant and the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). These are government-funded, non-commercial organizations, and they did not influence any aspect of the content of the study. The COco-study has been approved by the Medical Research Ethics Committees United (MEC-U) at Nieuwegein, The Netherlands (project number A20.247/R20.041). It follows laws and guidelines on research with human subjects, including international standards such as the Declaration of Helsinki. The authors wish to thank all hairdressers and employees in the hospitality industry who voluntarily participated in this study. We would further like to thank the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) for providing the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits used to measure seroprevalence in our study population and for conducting the quantitative ELISA. We would like to thank the employees of Microvida for conducting the ELISA tests and Anita Blerck, Desiree Bosker, and Karin de Vries at the Regional Public Health Service of West-Brabant (GGD) for contacting participants to ensure participation in questionnaires and scheduling appointments. We would also like to thank Royal Horeca the Netherlands (KHN), and the municipality of Breda for their help with the recruitment of participants. Finally, we would like to thank the management team of the Regional Public Health Service of West-Brabant, in particular Mark van Beers and Fion Brouwer at the RIVM and Ariëne Rietveld, public health physician at the RIVM, and the Regional Public Health Service of Hart voor Brabant, for their support toward and input in this study. Dymphie Mioch: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing - original draft. Leonard Vanbrabant: methodology, formal analysis, writing - review & editing. Johan Reimerink: methodology, formal analysis, writing - review & editing. Sandra Kuiper: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing - review & editing, funding acquisition. Esther Lodder: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing - review & editing. Wouter van den Bijllaardt: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing - review & editing. Jan Kluytmans: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing - review & editing. Michel D. Wissing: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing - original draft, writing - review & editing, supervision, funding acquisition, visualization.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)
PY - 2023/1
Y1 - 2023/1
N2 - OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate dynamics of antibody levels after exposure to SARS-CoV-2 for 12 months in Dutch non-vaccinated hairdressers and hospitality staff.METHODS: In this prospective cohort study, blood samples were collected every 3 months for 1 year and analyzed using a qualitative total antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a quantitative immunoglobulin (Ig)G antibody ELISA. Participants completed questionnaires, providing information on demographics, health, and work. Differences in antibody levels were evaluated using Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Beta coefficients (β) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using linear regression.RESULTS: Ninety-five of 497 participants (19.1%) had ≥1 seropositive measurement before their last visit using the qualitative ELISA. Only 2.1% (2/95) seroreverted during follow-up. Of 95 participants, 82 (86.3%) tested IgG seropositive in the quantitative ELISA too. IgG antibody levels significantly decreased in the first months (P <0.01) but remained detectable for up to 12 months in all participants. Older age (β, 10-years increment: 24.6, 95% CI: 5.7-43.5) and higher body mass index (β, 5kg/m² increment: 40.0, 95% CI: 2.9-77.2) were significantly associated with a higher peak of antibody levels.CONCLUSION: In this cohort, SARS-CoV-2 antibodies persisted for up to 1 year after initial seropositivity, suggesting long-term natural immunity.
AB - OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate dynamics of antibody levels after exposure to SARS-CoV-2 for 12 months in Dutch non-vaccinated hairdressers and hospitality staff.METHODS: In this prospective cohort study, blood samples were collected every 3 months for 1 year and analyzed using a qualitative total antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a quantitative immunoglobulin (Ig)G antibody ELISA. Participants completed questionnaires, providing information on demographics, health, and work. Differences in antibody levels were evaluated using Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Beta coefficients (β) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using linear regression.RESULTS: Ninety-five of 497 participants (19.1%) had ≥1 seropositive measurement before their last visit using the qualitative ELISA. Only 2.1% (2/95) seroreverted during follow-up. Of 95 participants, 82 (86.3%) tested IgG seropositive in the quantitative ELISA too. IgG antibody levels significantly decreased in the first months (P <0.01) but remained detectable for up to 12 months in all participants. Older age (β, 10-years increment: 24.6, 95% CI: 5.7-43.5) and higher body mass index (β, 5kg/m² increment: 40.0, 95% CI: 2.9-77.2) were significantly associated with a higher peak of antibody levels.CONCLUSION: In this cohort, SARS-CoV-2 antibodies persisted for up to 1 year after initial seropositivity, suggesting long-term natural immunity.
KW - Cohort study
KW - Contact profession
KW - COVID-19 serological testing
KW - Immunoglobulin G
KW - Natural infection
KW - SARS-CoV-2 antibodies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143866341&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijid.2022.11.025
DO - 10.1016/j.ijid.2022.11.025
M3 - Article
C2 - 36436751
SN - 1201-9712
VL - 126
SP - 155
EP - 163
JO - International Journal of Infectious Diseases
JF - International Journal of Infectious Diseases
ER -