Cent Eur J Public Health 2023, 31(Suppl 1):S10-S14 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a7836

Prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in employees of St. Jacob Hospital in Bardejov

Mária Konečná¹, Mariana Maxinová², Eva Mihalcová², Anna Kutná², Vincent Sedlák¹, Marta Mydlárová Blaščáková¹, Mária Majherová³, Meryem Yildiz¹, Jozef Fejér⁴, Daniela Gruľová⁴, Janka Poráčová¹

¹ Department of Biology, Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, University of Prešov, Prešov, Slovak Republic

² Department of Laboratory Medicine, St. Jacob Hospital with Polyclinic, Bardejov, Slovak Republic

³ Department of Physics, Mathematics, and Technics, Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, University of Prešov, Prešov, Slovak Republic

⁴ Department of Ecology, Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, University of Prešov, Prešov, Slovak Republic

Objective: The COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus belongs to the group of highly infectious diseases with increased mortality and morbidity in the population. Finding the presence of antibodies plays an important role while finding the number of individuals who overcame the disease or were vaccinated.

Methods: A total of 250 employees of St. Jacob Hospital with Polyclinic, Bardejov, participated in our study, the blood samples were drawn from the index finger and processed with the help of the rapid Ag test for the detection of antibodies and venous blood using the ELISA method. The health workers (doctors, nurses, medical laboratory technicians, laboratory diagnosticians) tested during September and October 2022 participated in our study.

Results: Our experimental study shows the presence of IgG antibodies in 215 (86%) of employees, who get them from overcoming the COVID-19 disease or getting vaccinated. In 17 (6.8%) of employees were detected IgG and IgM antibodies. The biggest number of IgG antibodies was found in 36 (78%) employees of the Surgical Department, 28 (84%) employees of Rehabilitation Department and 25 (89%) employees of the Internal Department, when compared with the Department of Laboratory Medicine 9 (30%) employees and Radiology Department 4 (44%) employees.

Conclusion: Multiple prevalence of COVID-19 disease were found in employees of the internal, surgical and rehabilitation departments in whom we detected a higher presence of IgG antibodies. In department of laboratory medicine workers were proven lower levels of IgG antibodies, mainly for the limited contact with the positive covid patients and working with only their biological material, compared to the first-line employees exposed to direct contact with the patients.

Keywords: COVID-19, antibodies, rapid Ag test, ELISA, employees

Received: April 12, 2023; Revised: November 27, 2023; Accepted: November 27, 2023; Published: December 31, 2023  Show citation