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Research letter
SARS-CoV-2 antibody seroprevalence in a London HIV clinic cohort
  1. Venkateshwaran Sivaraj1,
  2. Harry Coleman1,
  3. Gaia Nebbia2,
  4. Sam Douthwaite3,
  5. Ranjababu Kulasegaram1
  1. 1 Genitourinary Medicine, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
  2. 2 Infection Sciences, Viapath Analytics, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
  3. 3 Department of Virology, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Venkateshwaran Sivaraj, Genitourinary Medicine, Guy's and Saint Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, SW2 4TP, UK; siv{at}dr.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/sextrans-2021-055306

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    The COVID-19 pandemic started in London during the latter part of January 2020 and reached its peak in April 2020. Antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 develop 2–3 weeks after exposure and decreases following recovery from illness.1 In the UK, patients accessing the National Health Service were able to request SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing since May 2020. Patients attending our HIV clinic were able to opt-in for SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing during their routine monitoring visit for blood tests. Laboratory tests were used to detect SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid antibodies in serum samples. A retrospective study was conducted to know the seropositivity rate among the tested cohort of our large central London HIV clinic.

    We collected data of people living with HIV who opted-in for SARS-CoV-2 antibody test from 1 May 2020 to 31 December 2020. Data on demographics, body mass index (BMI), comorbidities, concomitant medications, Antiretroviral therapy (ART), CD4 count and HIV viral load, symptoms of COVID-19 and hospital admissions were collected for people who tested positive for antibodies. The test result was considered negative when reported as inconclusive.

    A total of 2567 (65.9%) people opted-in for the SARS-CoV-2 antibody test. Among them, 271 (10.6%) were tested positive; male: …

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    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Anna Maria Geretti

    • Contributors VS contributed to hypothesis, methodology, data collection, result analysis and manuscript. HC contributed to data collection, result analysis and manuscript. GN contributed to methodology, laboratory supervision and manuscript. SD contributed to hypothesis, methodology, laboratory supervision, result analysis and manuscript. RK supervised the study governance, contributed to methodology, result analysis and manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.