Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among health care personnel in Portugal

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Health care personnel (HCP) might be highly exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infection. This study aims to determine the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among HCP in Portugal. A cross-sectional study was conducted between 1 June and 19 July 2020, following the first wave of COVID-19 in the country, with a convenience sample of HCP from different Portuguese health care units, geographically distributed at the national level. Diagnosis of COVID-19 was an exclusion criterion. HCP were tested for IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. Data regarding participants’ demographic characteristics, medical history, COVID-19 symptoms, previous clinical testing for acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) practices while caring for patients in areas with COVID-19 patients were also recorded. A total of 1802 HCP were screened (80.9% women), of which 55 (3.1%) had positive test results for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Factors such as geographical distribution (p = 0.002), profession (p = 0.018), having had a family member with COVID-19 (p < 0.001) and having had contact with family members with COVID-19 (p = 0.003) were found to be associated with infection. Adjusting for gender, age group, regional health administration and size of the household, health care assistants have an increased risk of having a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result in comparison to nurses. Understanding the prevalence of and factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCP is important for developing effective strategies to protect them and their patients.This research was funded by Fundação Álvaro de Carvalho, Fundação Vox Populi, Fundação Manuel Viegas Guerreiro and the Claude and Sofia Foundation.