SARS-associated coronavirus infection seroprevalence study in Hong Kong
Ly-Mee Yu, Noel McCarthy and Doug Altman with KL Chan, KS Chan, TF Lau, PC Ng, JJY Sung (Hong Kong)
The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has captured a worldwide public health concern. Thus far, much of the research efforts have been directed at discerning the biology of the SARS-associated coronavirus and the clinical features of the disease; there have been no studies examining the seroprevalence of SARS-associated coronavirus antibody in the general population. Further research in this area is needed to investigate the true magnitude of the infection. In addition, the existing epidemiological data have solely relied on hospital cases. This method is highly susceptible to under- or over-estimation of the data obtained since cases with clinically mild or unapparent infection were not included. An approach that allows investigators to capture a wider spectrum of SARS-associated coronavirus infection is considered to be more desirable to examine the patterns of disease in the population and the distribution of the infection in different population groups.
This observational study aimed at investigating the prevalence of antibody to SARS-associated coronavirus infection in the general population of Hong Kong and examining the risk factors for the infection and protective factors against the disease. 6,946 households with a total of 16,007 individuals had their demographic information and blood sample collected. Serum samples would be screened for IgG antibody to SARS-coronavirus using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Immunofluorescence and Western blot would be used as confirmatory tests for seropositive samples.
