Department of Preventive Medicine, Injae University School of Medicine, Busan, South Korea.
Department of Infectious Disease Research, Armed Forces Medical Research Institute, Daejeon, South Korea.
Med Sci Monit. 2022 May 4;28:e934926. doi: 10.12659/MSM.934926.
BACKGROUND Understanding the seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can be a useful tool when studying spread of the disease. This study aimed to compare the prevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in 9954 recruits in the Korean Army Training Center with the general Korean population age <30 years between September and November, 2020. MATERIAL AND METHODS At the Korean Army Training Center, samples were taken from 9954 men from September to November, 2020. Participants were randomly enlisted healthy adult men. The data were compared with 4,205,265 samples from the Korean general population. Men age <30 years were used, as this is similar to the age range of the military recruits. RESULTS Among military recruits, 31 subjects (0.31%) were positive for the antibody, while the Korean male population had 3757 (0.09%) positive individuals. Among these 31 men, 13 were previously diagnosed by PCR, while 18 (58.06%) had no history related to the disease. Positive military recruits were mostly from 2 regional clusters. The first cluster was Daegu and Gyeongbuk areas (1.97% and 0.80%, respectively), which had an outbreak in March, 2020. The second cluster was Gyeonggi and Seoul, or capital areas (0.23% and 0.20%, respectively), which currently has high PCR positivity. Overall, seroprevalence was 3.49 times higher in study subjects. CONCLUSIONS The high seroprevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 between September and November 2020 in a densely populated military academy in Korea may have been an indicator for the resulting outbreak of COVID-19 in winter 2020-21, which highlights the importance of asymptomatic spread from the young and healthy to the general population.
了解严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2(SARS-CoV-2)的血清流行率在研究疾病传播时是一种有用的工具。本研究旨在比较 2020 年 9 月至 11 月在韩国陆军训练中心的 9954 名新兵与年龄<30 岁的韩国一般人群中 SARS-CoV-2 抗体的流行率。
在韩国陆军训练中心,于 2020 年 9 月至 11 月期间从 9954 名男性中采集样本。参与者为随机招募的健康成年男性。将数据与韩国一般人群的 4205265 个样本进行比较。使用年龄<30 岁的男性,因为这与新兵的年龄范围相似。
在新兵中,有 31 例(0.31%)抗体阳性,而韩国男性人口中有 3757 例(0.09%)阳性个体。在这 31 名男性中,13 人经 PCR 诊断,而 18 人(58.06%)无相关疾病史。阳性新兵主要来自 2 个区域集群。第一个集群是大邱和庆尚北道地区(分别为 1.97%和 0.80%),2020 年 3 月爆发疫情。第二个集群是京畿道和首尔或首都地区(分别为 0.23%和 0.20%),目前 PCR 阳性率较高。总体而言,研究对象的血清流行率高 3.49 倍。
2020 年 9 月至 11 月期间,韩国人口密集的军事学院 SARS-CoV-2 抗体高流行率可能是 2020-21 年冬季 COVID-19 爆发的指标,这凸显了无症状传播从年轻人和健康人群到一般人群的重要性。