The latest CITF-funded seroprevalence report from Canadian Blood Services showed that seroprevalence due to natural infection was 77.6% at the end of February.
A systematic review published in BMJ Open, drawing on data from the CITF-funded Serotracker initiative led by Dr. Rahul Arora (University of Calgary), highlights that SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence varied widely across occupations during the first year of the pandemic.
In its latest CITF-funded seroprevalence report, Canadian Blood Services suggest that 77.3% of blood donors had infection-acquired antibodies by mid-February.
Despite all donors having vaccine-related antibodies, seroprevalence data from Canadian Blood Services suggested that 76.2% of donors had infection-acquired antibodies by mid-January 2023.
Canadian Blood Services data suggest that 73.5% of donors had infection-acquired antibodies by the end of 2022. This was slightly higher than the 71% estimated at the end of November.
Canadian Blood Services data suggest 73.3% of donors had infection-acquired antibodies by mid-December 2022 – slightly higher than the 71% Canadian Blood Services estimated at the end of November.
In a letter published in CMAJ, CITF-funded researchers Drs. Sheila O’Brien and Stephen Drews (Canadian Blood Services) argue that blood donor surveillance would make a valuable contribution to public health efforts to monitor emerging pathogens.
A CITF-funded study published in the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine by Dr. Corinne Hohl (University of British Columbia), found that performing a D-dimer screening test on patients exhibiting characteristic COVID-19 symptoms upon admission to hospital emergency departments (ED) was very effective in ruling out the risk of pulmonary embolism (PE) within 30 days.
A study published in PLOS Medicine, carried out by CITF-funded SeroTracker, in partnership with the World Health Organization Unity Studies Team, found global SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence (due to infection and vaccination) was 59.2% by September 2021.
A study relying on data from CITF-funded SeroTracker, published in Epidemics by Dr. Rahul Arora (University of Calgary), showed that peer-reviewed scientific papers and preprints of COVID-19 seroprevalence studies are published more slowly than those published via other means, thereby diminishing their usefulness to public health decision-makers during a time-sensitive health emergency response.