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Volume 29, Number 4—April 2023
Research

Monitoring Temporal Changes in SARS-CoV-2 Spike Antibody Levels and Variant-Specific Risk for Infection, Dominican Republic, March 2021–August 2022

Eric J. NillesComments to Author , Michael de St. Aubin, Devan Dumas, William Duke, Marie Caroline Etienne, Gabriela Abdalla, Petr Jarolim, Timothy Oasan, Salome Garnier, Naomi Iihoshi, Beatriz Lopez, Lucia de la Cruz, Yosanly Cornelio Puello, Margaret Baldwin, Kathryn W. Roberts, Farah Peña, Kara Durski, Isaac Miguel Sanchez, Sarah M. Gunter, Alexander R. Kneubehl, Kristy O. Murray, Allison Lino, Sarah Strobel, Amado Alejandro Baez, Colleen L. Lau, Adam Kucharski, Emily Zielinski Gutiérrez, Ronald Skewes-Ramm, Marietta Vasquez1, and Cecilia Then Paulino1
Author affiliations: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA (E.J. Nilles, M. de St. Aubin, D. Dumas, M.C. Etienne, G. Abdalla, P. Jarolim, T. Oasan, S. Garnier, N. Iihoshi, M. Baldwin, K.W. Roberts, K. Durski); Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (E.J. Nilles, M. de St. Aubin, D. Dumas, S. Garnier, M. Baldwin, K.W. Roberts, K. Durski); Harvard Medical School, Boston (E.J. Nilles, P. Jarolim); Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (W. Duke); US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Central America Regional Office, Guatemala City, Guatemala (B. Lopez, E. Zielinski Gutiérrez); Ministry of Health and Social Assistance, Santo Domingo (L. de la Cruz, Y. Cornelio Puello, F. Peña, I.M. Sanchez, R. Skewes-Ramm, C. Then Paulino); Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, Texas, USA (S.M. Gunter, A.R. Kneubehl, K.O. Murray, A. Lino, S. Strobel); Dominican Republic Office of the Presidency, Santo Domingo (A.A. Baez); University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (C.L. Lau); London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England, UK (A. Kucharski); Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (M. Vasquez)

Main Article

Table 3

Geometric mean and median spike binding antibody titers of participants in study of SARS-CoV-2 spike antibody levels, by SARS-CoV-2 NAAT status and phase of predominant circulating viral strain, Dominican Republic, March 2021–August 2022*

Phase† SARS-COV-2 NAAT result No. (%) participants GMT, BAU/mL (95% CI) Fold difference in GMT‡ Median titer, BAU/mL (Q1–Q3) Fold difference in median titer
Pre-Delta
 Negative 495 (76.6) 14.1 (10.9–18.2) 3.4
 13.3 (0.8–132.8) 5.5
Positive
 151 (23.4)
 4.1 (2.6–6.5)
 2.4 (0.4–24.4)
Delta
 Negative 553 (72.4) 604.8 (475.3–769.7) 3.9
 792.3 (127.8–4,805) 4.5
Positive
 211 (27.6)
 154.7 (97.8–244.7)
 176.2 (24.7–1,638.5)
Omicron BA.1
 Negative 403 (86.9) 1,288.3 (965.4–1,719.2) 1.8
 2,822 (511.1–8,656) 3.4
Positive
 61 (13.1)
 713.8 (375.1–1,358.5)
 837.2 (126.8–5,739)
Omicron BA.2/4/5
 Negative 332 (77.9) 1,541.4 (1,183.4–2,007.6) 2.0
 3,202 (1,011–6,173) 1.7
Positive
 94 (22.1)
 759.6 (468.1–1,232.6)
 1,835 (197.7–3,882.2)
Total Negative 1,783 (77.5) 300.6 (256.5–352.4) 3.5 725 (31.6–4,351.5) 6.0
Positive 517 (22.5) 85.8 (62.9–117.1) 121.2 (4.6–1,905)

*N = 2,300. BAU, binding antibody units; GMT, geometric mean titer; NAAT, nucleic acid amplification test. †Phases based on dominant circulating strain: March 22–August 15, 2021 (pre-Delta, primarily Mu, Gamma, Iota, and Lambda strains), August 16–December 23, 2021 (Delta), December 24, 2021–April 30, 2022 (Omicron, BA.1), and May 1–August 17, 2022 (Omicron, BA.2, BA.4, BA.5). Appendix Figure 5 shows sequence-confirmed variant by week. ‡Fold difference is GMT or median titer of NAAT-negative participants divided by the titer of NAAT-positive participants. Bolded type indicates statistical significant result (p<0.001, by t test for GMT difference between NAAT-negative and positive-study participants).

Main Article

1These authors contributed equally to this article.

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