Decline in SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies After Mild Infection Among Frontline Health Care Personnel in a Multistate Hospital Network — 12 States, April–August 2020

Details

• Journal Article:
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Personal Author:
  Self, Wesley H. ; Tenforde, Mark W. ; Stubblefield, William B. ; Feldstein, Leora R. ; Steingrub, Jay S. ; Shapiro, Nathan I. ; Ginde, Adit A. ; Prekker, Matthew E. ; Brown, Samuel M. ; Peltan, Ithan D. ; Gong, Michelle N. ; Aboodi, Michael S. ; Khan, Akram ; Exline, Matthew C. ; Files, D. Clark ; Gibbs, Kevin W. ; Lindsell, Christopher J. ; Rice, Todd W. ; Jones, Ian D. ; Halasa, Natasha ; Talbot, H. Keipp ; Grijalva, Carlos G. ; Casey, Jonathan D. ; Hager, David N. ; Qadir, Nida ; Henning, Daniel J. ; Coughlin, Melissa M. ; Schiffer, Jarad ; Semenova, Vera ; Li, Han ; Thornburg, Natalie J. ; Patel, Manish M. ; Rasheed, Mohammed Ata Ur ; Mills, Lisa ; Lester, Sandra N. ; Freeman, Brandi ; Alston, Bailey ; Ategbole, Muyiwa ; Browning, Peter ; Bolcen, Shanna ; Boulay, Darbi ; Cronin, Li ; David, Ebenezer ; Desai, Rita ; Epperson, Monica ; Gorantla, Yamini ; Jia, Tao ; Maniatis, Pete ; Ortiz, Kristina ; Park, So Hee ; Patel, Palak ; Qin, Yunlong ; Tatum, Heather ; Zellner, Briana ; Baughman, Adrienne ; Hart, Kimberly W. ; McClellan, Robert ; McHenry, Rendie ; Johnson, Jakea ; Fletcher, Andrea ; Cordero, Kemberlyne ; Kozikowski, Lori ; De Souza, Lesley ; Romain, Sarah ; Ouellette, Scott ; Santana, Andres ; Thornton-Thompson, Sherell ; Howell, Michelle ; Peers, Jennifer ; Shelton, Shelby ; Finck, Lani ; Soules, Kirsten ; Klausner, Michael ; Calderon-Morales, Ximena ; Erickson, Heidi L. ; Hendrickson, Audrey ; Stang, Jamie ; Maruggi, Ellen ; Dunn, Alex ; Stenehjem, Eddie ; Aston, Valerie ; Bown, Mikaele ; Matheu, Michelle ; Smith, Rilee ; Krol, Olivia ; Salar, Andrew ; Kamel, Makrina ; Nguyen, Kelly ; Huynh, Peter ; Karow, Sarah ; Bright, Michelle ; Bookless, Holly ; Mullins, Sandy ; Neidert, Kelly ; McGowan, Dina ; Cassandra, Elizabeth ; Brown, Emily ; Carlin, Claire ; Wemlinger, Trina ; Edwards, Breona ; Flores, Lori ; LaRose, Mary ; Ferbas, Kathie J. ; Martin-Blais, Rachel ; Aldrovandi, Grace M. ; Thompson, Olivia ; Sehgal, Sakshi
• Corporate Authors:
  CDC COVID-19 Response Team ; IVY Network
• Description:
  Most persons infected with SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that causes coronaVirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), develop Virus-specific antibodies within several weeks, but antibody titers might decline over time. Understanding the timeline of antibody decline is important for interpreting SARS-CoV-2 serology results. Serum specimens were collected from a convenience sample of frontline health care personnel at 13 hospitals and tested for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 during April 3-June 19, 2020, and again approximately 60 days later to assess this timeline. The percentage of participants who experienced seroreversion, defined as an antibody signal-to-threshold ratio >1.0 at baseline and <1.0 at the follow-up visit, was assessed. Overall, 194 (6.0%) of 3,248 participants had detectable antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 at baseline (1). Upon repeat tTesting approximately 60 days later (range = 50-91 days), 146 (93.6%) of 156 participants experienced a decline in antibody response indicated by a lower signal-to-threshold ratio at the follow-up visit, compared with the baseline visit, and 44 (28.2%) experienced seroreversion. Participants with higher initial antibody responses were more likely to have antibodies detected at the follow-up test than were those who had a lower initial antibody response. Whether decay in these antibodies increases risk for reinfection and disease remains unanswered. However, these results suggest that serology tTesting at a single time point is likely to underestimate the number of persons with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, and a negative serologic test result might not reliably exclude prior infection.
• Subjects:
  Adult Antibodies, Viral BetacoronaVirus CoronaVirus Infections COVID-19 Female Full Report Humans Male Middle Aged Pandemics Personnel, Hospital Pneumonia, Viral SARS-CoV-2

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• Source:
  MMWR Morbidity Mortal Weekly Rep. 69(47):1762-1766
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• ISSN:
  0149-2195 (print) ; 1545-861X (digital)
• Pubmed ID:
  33237893
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC7727600
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Pages in Document:
  5 pdf pages
• Volume:
  69
• Issue:
  47
• Collection(s):
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ca396c8b38b5384a8e673a5ab0f6ce8179d61cb74d155304e6f9947077a68922e05e0d16c09175b66ddb237559fc068af9a697d5d28f78338f5c536e56a7d679
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/99494/cdc_99494_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 122.30 KB ]