Evaluation of Antibody Response in COVID-19 Recovered Population of Swat Kp, Pakistan

Abstract

A novel coronavirus disease now known as the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It poses a huge challenge to the society, economy, and public health worldwide. At present, the antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 remain largely unknown especially in remote regions of developing countries. The objective of the study was to evaluate the antibody response in COVID-19 recovered patients and vaccinated individuals of district Swat. COBAS-511 machine was used for quantitative detection of COVID-19 antibodies in 3 cc venous blood collected from selected patients and was stored in collection tubes followed by subsequent centrifugation to separate the serum. Further to ensure the variable factors does not affect the accuracy of the study, 95 questionnaires were distributed where the participants were asked to disclose basic information (name, age, gender, address, area, COVID-19 test, vaccinated or nonvaccinated, signs and symptoms, antibiotics/antivirals used during the infection time) since it is important to confirm patients' health status and to clearly determine whether they can donate plasma. Participant’s age ranging from 15 to 63 were involved in these studies. As per findings of this study, people aged 45 to 55 years had high levels of antibodies against COVID-19. In age wise antibody response level women were found to have higher antibody levels than men. Among the variable factors, the most common pre-complications were heart disease and diabetes, such individuals had higher levels of anti-COVID-19 antibodies than those with no prior health complications. The level of antibodies was significantly higher in patients that received anti-COVID-19 vaccines post recovery as compared to those that did not receive vaccine. However further study will be required to validate these preliminary observations.