Hardly any corona antibodies in donor blood

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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For the course of the corona pandemic, it is crucial how many people have already gone through the disease. You are most likely protected from getting the disease again and will not be able to pass the virus on. Since Sars-COV-2 infections often go unnoticed, the number of unreported cases is correspondingly high.

Donor blood tested from three months

A test of blood donations provides information on how high. Hamburg researchers searched the blood of a total of 914 blood donors for antibodies against Sars-CoV-2. These particles make up the body's immune system in response to infection with the virus. The blood was donated in April, May and June.

The result: not even one percent of the Hamburg donors had corona antibodies in their blood. For the pandemic to die down, 60 to 70 percent of the population would have to have built up immune protection.

900 samples, four hits

Specifically, the researchers discovered only one previously unknown SARS-CoV-2 infection (0.3 percent) in 300 blood donors from April 6th to 10th, and two in 288 blood donors in the period from May 4th to 6th (0.7 percent) and in the period from June 2 to 5, out of 326 blood donors, again only one (0.3 percent).

"Anyone who has had only mild or unspecific cold symptoms here in Hamburg in the past few months has a very high probability of not contracting COVID-19," says Dr. Sven Peine, head of the Institute for Transfusion Medicine at the University Hospital Hamburg, one of the study directors.

Not representative, but a guide

The study is not representative of Germany. Because the degree of infection depends on how active the virus is in a region. In the corona hotspot Gangelt, researchers led by Hendrik Streeck from the University of Bonn had already found antibodies against the virus in the blood of 15.5 percent of the test subjects a few weeks ago.

In addition: "Blood donors are not a 1: 1 picture of the Hamburg population, but they can give us good clues about the unnoticed course of infection," said Peine.

The series of tests is to be repeated every four weeks in the future. In this way, the researchers can continue to monitor the progress of the pandemic in Hamburg.

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