{"title":"A serological survey of COVID-19 among predominantly aboriginal residents of a tourist island in southern Thailand.","authors":"Supakorn Sripaew, Kameelah Yasharad, Dzerlina S Rahari, Weiyan Feng, Zhenzhu Qian, Huynh Ngoc Thanh, Pei Li, Agus Fitriangga, Satiti Palupi Purwanto, Aye Nyein Phyu, Fangming Xianyu, Sombat Phadungvitvatthana, Wit Wichaidit, Ponlagrit Kumwichar, Virasakdi Chongsuvivatwong","doi":"10.1186/s41182-024-00617-0","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The current survey describes the seroprevalence, history of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and vaccination status among predominantly aboriginal residents on a tourist island in southern Thailand. This information can be translated into COVID-19 vaccination and control plans for this population.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We implemented questionnaire interviews and collected blood samples from 249 residents of Lipe Island, Satun Province, in January 2022. We measured the anti-nucleocapsid protein and anti-spike (anti-S) receptor-binding protein levels of immunoglobulin (Ig) M and IgG. The differences in antibody levels among participants with different histories of vaccination and infection were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance with multiple comparisons.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>During the 2-year pandemic period, no island residents with COVID-19 required hospitalization despite the high prevalence of hypertension (33.3%) and diabetes mellitus (21.7%). Approximately 18.8% of the participants reported a history of COVID-19 diagnosis. In total, 95.1% of the participants had a history of complete vaccination, of which 93.5% were seropositive. The anti-S IgG geometric means (geometric standard deviation) were 3945.8 (2.0), 829.8 (9.7) AU/mL, 789.9 (5.3) AU/mL, and 22.7 (7.1) AU/mL, respectively, in participants with a history of both COVID-19 diagnosis and complete vaccination (group 1), incomplete vaccination and subsequent COVID-19 diagnosis (group 2), complete vaccination but no previous infection (group 3), or neither previous COVID-19 and complete vaccination (group 4). Significant pairwise differences in anti-S IgG levels were found between certain groups (1 vs 3, 1 vs 4, 2 vs 4, and 3 vs 4).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The high coverage of vaccination, high levels of population antibody titers, variable antibody levels among completely vaccinated non-infected residents, and high prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) suggested that the local health systems could control the pandemic. However, continuing surveillance, booster vaccinations, and NCD prevention programs were still required.</p>","PeriodicalId":23311,"journal":{"name":"Tropical Medicine and Health","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11373474/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Tropical Medicine and Health","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s41182-024-00617-0","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"TROPICAL MEDICINE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: The current survey describes the seroprevalence, history of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and vaccination status among predominantly aboriginal residents on a tourist island in southern Thailand. This information can be translated into COVID-19 vaccination and control plans for this population.
Methods: We implemented questionnaire interviews and collected blood samples from 249 residents of Lipe Island, Satun Province, in January 2022. We measured the anti-nucleocapsid protein and anti-spike (anti-S) receptor-binding protein levels of immunoglobulin (Ig) M and IgG. The differences in antibody levels among participants with different histories of vaccination and infection were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance with multiple comparisons.
Results: During the 2-year pandemic period, no island residents with COVID-19 required hospitalization despite the high prevalence of hypertension (33.3%) and diabetes mellitus (21.7%). Approximately 18.8% of the participants reported a history of COVID-19 diagnosis. In total, 95.1% of the participants had a history of complete vaccination, of which 93.5% were seropositive. The anti-S IgG geometric means (geometric standard deviation) were 3945.8 (2.0), 829.8 (9.7) AU/mL, 789.9 (5.3) AU/mL, and 22.7 (7.1) AU/mL, respectively, in participants with a history of both COVID-19 diagnosis and complete vaccination (group 1), incomplete vaccination and subsequent COVID-19 diagnosis (group 2), complete vaccination but no previous infection (group 3), or neither previous COVID-19 and complete vaccination (group 4). Significant pairwise differences in anti-S IgG levels were found between certain groups (1 vs 3, 1 vs 4, 2 vs 4, and 3 vs 4).
Conclusions: The high coverage of vaccination, high levels of population antibody titers, variable antibody levels among completely vaccinated non-infected residents, and high prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) suggested that the local health systems could control the pandemic. However, continuing surveillance, booster vaccinations, and NCD prevention programs were still required.