{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,11]],"date-time":"2026-11-11T10:56:09Z","timestamp":1794394569555,"version":"4.9.0"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,10]],"date-time":"2021-08-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1628553600000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":221,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["cambridge.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Epidemiol. Infect."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n\t  <jats:p>Although the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is lasting for more than 1 year, the exposition risks of health-care providers are still unclear. Available evidence is conflicting. We investigated the prevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in the staff of a large public hospital with multiple sites in the Antwerp region of Belgium. Risk factors for infection were identified by means of a questionnaire and human resource data. We performed hospital-wide serology tests in the weeks following the first epidemic wave (16 March to the end of May 2020) and combined the results with the answers from an individual questionnaire. Overall seroprevalence was 7.6%. We found higher seroprevalences in nurses [10.0%; 95% confidence interval (CI) 8.9\u201311.2] than in physicians 6.4% (95% CI 4.6\u20138.7), paramedical 6.0% (95% CI 4.3\u20138.0) and administrative staff (2.9%; 95% CI 1.8\u20134.5). Staff who indicated contact with a confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) colleague had a higher seroprevalence (12.0%; 95% CI 10.7\u201313.4) than staff who did not (4.2%; 95% CI 3.5\u20135.0). The same findings were present for contacts in the private setting. Working in general COVID-19 wards, but not in emergency departments or intensive care units, was also a significant risk factor. Since our analysis points in the direction of active SARS-CoV-2 transmission within hospitals, we argue for implementing a stringent hospital-wide testing and contact-tracing policy with special attention to the health care workers employed in general COVID-19 departments. Additional studies are needed to establish the transmission dynamics.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1017\/s0950268821001497","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,10]],"date-time":"2021-08-10T03:02:13Z","timestamp":1628564533000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/policypage","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence survey among health care providers in a Belgian public multiple-site hospital"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"149","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1004-7737","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Reinout","family":"Naesens","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Helena","family":"Mertes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Johan","family":"Clukers","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sereina","family":"Herzog","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Christiane","family":"Brands","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Philippe","family":"Vets","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Inneke","family":"De laet","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peggy","family":"Bruynseels","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pieter","family":"De Schouwer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sanne","family":"van der Maas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Katrien","family":"Bervoets","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1881-0637","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Niel","family":"Hens","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pierre","family":"Van Damme","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s11606-020-05926-8"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.2020.14765"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.diagmicrobio.2021.115313"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(20)31142-9"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref3","article-title":"COVID-19 and healthcare workers: a rapid systematic review into risks and preventive measures","volume":"11","author":"Gross","year":"2021","journal-title":"British Medical Journal Open"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1101\/2020.06.08.20125179"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7326\/M20-2306"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5281\/zenodo.4664403"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref4","article-title":"Triaging of respiratory protective equipment on the assumed risk of SARS-CoV-2 aerosol exposure in patient-facing healthcare workers delivering secondary care: a rapid review","volume":"10","author":"Ramaraj","year":"2020","journal-title":"British Medical Journal Open"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/cid\/ciaa287"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/cid\/ciaa1471"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S2468-2667(20)30164-X"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref25","unstructured":"25. International Council of Nurses Available at https:\/\/www.icn.ch\/sites\/default\/files\/inline-files\/PR_52_1500%20Nurse%20Deaths_FINAL-3.pdf."},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMoa2008457"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref18","volume-title":"Regression Modelle, Methoden und Anwendungen","author":"Fahrmeir","year":"2009"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref10","first-page":"30589","article-title":"Risk of COVID-19 in health-care workers in Denmark: an observational cohort study","volume":"1473\u20133099","author":"Iversen","year":"2020","journal-title":"The Lancet Infectious Diseases"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1101\/2020.12.09.20246462"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref17","unstructured":"17. Sciensano, Belgian governmental scientific service procedures Available at https:\/\/covid-19.sciensano.be\/nl\/procedures\/infectiepreventie-en-persoonlijk-beschermingsmateriaal-pbm."},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref1","unstructured":"1. World Health Organisation, World Health Organisation situation reports, Available at https:\/\/www.who.int\/emergencies\/diseases\/novel-coronavirus-2019\/situation-reports."},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/ice.2020.390"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/thoraxjnl-2020-215414"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref16","unstructured":"16. European Center of Disease Control Epidemiology reports Available at https:\/\/www.ecdc.europa.eu\/en\/COVID-19\/latest-evidence\/epidemiology."},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1101\/2020.10.03.20204545"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.2020.11160"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1101\/2020.08.06.20169763"},{"key":"S0950268821001497_ref5","article-title":"Risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity among US health care personnel","volume":"4","author":"Jacob","year":"2021","journal-title":"The Journal of the American Medical Association"}],"container-title":["Epidemiology and Infection"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/services\/aop-cambridge-core\/content\/view\/S0950268821001497","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,10]],"date-time":"2021-08-10T03:02:20Z","timestamp":1628564540000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/product\/identifier\/S0950268821001497\/type\/journal_article"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021]]},"references-count":26,"alternative-id":["S0950268821001497"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/s0950268821001497","relation":{},"ISSN":["0950-2688","1469-4409"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0950-2688","type":"print"},{"value":"1469-4409","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Copyright \u00a9 The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.","name":"license","label":"License","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This content has been made available to all.","name":"free","label":"Free to read"}],"article-number":"e172"}}