SARS-CoV-2 Serosurvey in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
John H. Kempen, Aida Abashawl, Hilkiah K. Suga, Mesfin Nigussie Difabachew, Christopher J. Kempen, Melaku Tesfaye Debele, Abel A. Menkir, Maranatha T. Assefa, Eyob Asfaw, Leul B. Habtegabriel, Yohannes Sitotaw Addisie, Eric J. Nilles, J. Craig Longenecker
Abstract
In a serosurvey of asymptomatic people from the general population recruited from a clinical laboratory in May 2020 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, three of 99 persons tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 IgG (3.0%, 95% binomial exact confidence interval: 0.6-8.6%). Taking into account pretest probability and the sampling scheme, the range of plausible population prevalence values was approximately 1.0-8.4%. These results suggest that a larger number of people have been infected than the counts detected by surveillance to date; nevertheless, the results suggest the large majority of the general population in Addis Ababa currently is susceptible to COVID-19.