Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Feb 4, 2021
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 3, 2021 - Mar 31, 2021
Date Accepted: Aug 10, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: Sep 17, 2021
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Assessing prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children by antibody detection in saliva: A prospective, longitudinal study protocol (Coro-Buddy)
ABSTRACT
Background:
The world is confronted with the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for a continuously rising number of cases and deaths. Severe disease is more often found in elderly people, whereas young children and adolescents rather only show mild symptoms or even remain asymptomatic, so that infection might be undiagnosed. Therefore, only limited epidemiological data on SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and young adults are available.
Objective:
This study aims to determine the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in children in a defined area, the city of Tübingen, Germany, and to follow the incidence of new cases in 12 months of follow-up.
Methods:
SARS-CoV-2 reactive antibodies will be measured in saliva as a surrogate for a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. Collection procedures are non-invasive and are thus amenable for epidemiologic studies that require representative population-based sampling. Children will be sampled via day care institutions and schools at three time points: starting in German summer 2020, before winter and after winter. An adult cohort will be sampled at the same time points for comparison (adult comparator group). The saliva sampling approach for SARS-CoV-2 antibody measurement allows a unique and representative, population-based sample collection. The saliva-based SARS-CoV-2 antibody ELISA is validated with blood and saliva sampled from adults with confirmed previous SARS-CoV-2 infection (adult validation group).
Results:
Recruitment of participants to this study began in July 2020, and data collection will continue for a planned study period of 12 months.
Conclusions:
Infection rates in children are commonly underreported due to lack of PCR testing. The study will inform about the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infections in children and the incidence change over the upcoming 12 months (2020/2021) in a defined area, the city of Tübingen, Germany. Prevalence data in different age cohorts such as infants, school children, adolescents will be evaluated. The saliva sampling approach for SARS-CoV-2 antibody measurement allows a unique and representative, population-based sample collection. Tübingen is a middle-sized University City in the South of Germany, and prevalence maybe informative for similar areas. Clinical Trial: Retrospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04581889, 10 October, 2020. Acronym: Coro-buddy.
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