SCREENING AND SEROEPIDEMIOLOGY OF SARS-CoV-2 INFECTION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Summary

BACKGROUND: On January 7, 2020, the Chinese authorities identified as the agent responsible for the cases of atypical pneumonia of unknown etiology a new type of virus of the Coronaviridae family that has subsequently been named SARS-CoV-2, whose genetic sequence was shared by Chinese authorities on January 12 (taxonomy ID: 2697049). On January 30, 2020, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), following the advice of the Emergency Committee convened in accordance with the International Health Regulations (2005), declared that the COVID-19 outbreak started in Wuhan, China in December 2019, being a public health emergency of international concern. On March 11, the WHO declared the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

So far, in the absence of effective vaccines or antiviral drugs, efforts have focused on identifying cases and their contacts. Both the cases and their contacts are isolated for about 14 days with the intention of minimizing the spread of this infection and avoiding an increase in the number of affected.

At the time of writing this new version of the protocol, we are immersed in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The projections of the natural history of the disease and the estimates of possible infections by SARS-CoV-2, carried out at the end of the first wave, made it possible to determine the feasibility of this second wave with the onset of cold from the autumn.

Given this scenario, the University of Barcelona, together with the Gerencia Territorial del Área Metropolitana Sud, has planned to carry out, a study of seroprevalence and screnning of SARS-CoV-2 in the population of Universidad de Barcelona users.

The results of this study will help to make preventive decisions in the face of SARS-CoV-2 infection at the UB, in relation to its teaching and administrative activities. In addition, this cross-sectional study can serve as the base study for a future follow-up study.

HYPOTHESIS: The incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the group of students and workers at the University of Barcelona is similar to the incidence in the general population.

MAIN OBJECTIVE:

* Estimate the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the UB community.
* Estimate the SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence infection in the UB community.

Conditions

• SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Interventions

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

SARS-CoV-2 PCR and serology tests

Once the informed consent has been signed, the selected subjects must complete an epidemiological survey and go to a UB sample collection center to perform a PCR and serology test for SARS-CoV-2.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Gerencia Territorial del Área Metropolitana Sur - Instituto Catalán de la Salud

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Hospital Universitario de Bellvitge

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Fundació IDIBELL

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Dr. Francisco Ciruela Alférez

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Sebastià Videla Cés, MD PhD · Hospital Universitario de Bellvitge

• Esteve Fernández Muñoz, Professor · Universidad de Barcelona

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-12-14

Primary Completion

2021-02-24

Completion

2021-02-24

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations