A Serological Analysis of Covid-19 Antibody Levels in Hospital Personnel: A Cross-sectional Study in Northeastern Iran

Abstract

Introduction: This study investigated the serum levels of Covid-19 IgM-IgG antibodies in three exposure groups in the Shahid Hasheminejad Hospital in Mashhad, Iran.Methods: Between March 2020 and March 170, 2021 serum samples were taken from hospital personnel. To determine the levels of COVID-19 IgM-IgG antibodies, we used the ELISA method (Pishgaman kit). Results were categorized as negative if they were less than 0.9, borderline if they were between 0.9 and 1.1, and positive if they were greater than 1.1. We used SPSS version 26 to evaluate the data. The exposure groups were separated into low (first group), moderate (second group), and high-risk (third group) levels.Results: 53 members of the 170 staff belonged to the first group, 51 to the second, and 66 to the third. There were 135 patients with negative IgG, 13 with IgG in the borderline range, and 22 with positive IgG. Furthermore, 9 individuals exhibited a positive IgM, while one had a borderline range IgM and 160 a negative IgM. In the first group, 56.6% of personnel reported cough, 5.9% of personnel in the second group had fever, and 24.2% of personnel in the third group experienced shortness of breath.Conclusion:The findings from this research indicated that there was no clear association between working in wards with higher risks and increased IgG and IgM levels. However, the results did reveal that being in wards with a high number of COVID-19 patients could result in more fever symptoms.

Keywords

• covid-19
• healthcare workers
• igg
• igm
• sars-cov-2 antibodies