Seck, Sidy MohamedMbow, MoustaphaKane, Yaya2023-05-222023-05-222021-11Seck, S. M., Mbow, M., Kane, Y., Cisse, M. M., Faye, G., Kama, A., ... & Mboup, S. (2021). Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in hemodialysis patients in Senegal: a multicenter cross-sectional study. BMC nephrology, 22, 1-8.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-021-02582-whttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1887Seck et al. BMC Nephrology (2021) 22:384Background: 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.enSARS-CoV-2COVID-19SeroprevalenceHemodialysisSenegalMouhamadou Moustapha CisseGnagna FayeAdama KamaMoussa SarrPamela NitcheuMohamed DahabaIbrahima Mbemba DialloMame Selly DiawaraLotingo Nehemie Motoula LatouYacine DiaSouleymane MboupCEA-AGIRUniversité Cheikh Anta DiopArticle