MONTREAL — More than one in four Quebec adults developed COVID-19 antibodies between the start of the year and mid-March, according to a new seroprevalence study of blood donors carried out by Héma-Québec on demand. of the Ministry of Health and Social Services of Quebec.
The Agence québécoise du sang explains that to obtain the results of this fourth phase of the study, the analyzes were carried out using a test to identify the antibodies present only in people who have been recently infected with the coronavirus. The approach developed by the researchers consists of comparing the level of antibodies in the same individual, on two samples spaced out over time.
Héma-Québec specifies that due to the surge of the wave of the Omicron variant, it took, for the same person, a sample collected before the arrival of the variant and another taken since the beginning of 2022. Tests conducted with donors registered in a plasma sample bank have established that 27.8% of the population of Quebec contracted COVID-19 between the end of 2021 and March 2022.
Héma-Québec reports that the increased presence of COVID-19 in the population is having an impact on its daily blood and plasma collection activities. Since the end of March, the organization has struggled to meet its weekly targets due to appointment cancellations by infected people, even if the needs remain the same.
The organization is therefore launching an appeal to reach the number of donations needed.
The head of the Immunization Unit of the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), Dr. Gaston DeSerres, points out that seroprevalence studies, such as the one carried out by Héma-Québec, are very useful to health authorities. to follow the evolution of the pandemic and that they are essential to validate the models used to predict its evolution.