Abstract:
Background: Hemodialysis patients are among high-risk groups for COVID-19. Africa is the continent with the lowest number of cases in the general population but we have little information about the disease burden in dialysis
patients.
Objectives: This study aimed to describe the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the hemodialysis population of Senegal.
Patients and methods: We conducted a multicenter cross-sectional survey, between June and September 2020
involving 10 public dialysis units randomly selected in eight regions of Senegal. After seeking their consent, we
included 303 patients aged ≥18 years and hemodialysis for ≥3months. Clinical symptoms and biological parameters
were collected from medical records. Patients’ blood samples were tested with Abbott SARS-CoV-2 Ig G assay using an
Architect system. Statistical tests were performed with STATA 12.0.
Results: Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was 21.1% (95% CI=16.7–26.1%). We noticed a wide variability
in SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence between regions ranging from 5.6 to 51.7%. Among the 38 patients who underwent
nasal swab testing, only six had a PCR-confrmed infection and all of them did seroconvert. Suggestive clinical symptoms were reported by 28.1% of seropositive patients and the majority of them presented asymptomatic disease.
After multivariate analysis, a previous contact with a confrmed case and living in a high population density region
were associated with the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
Conclusion: This study presents to our knowledge the frst seroprevalence data in African hemodialysis patients.
Compared to data from other continents, we found a higher proportion of patients with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies but a
lower lethality rate.
