SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence study after the first wave among persons living and working in an overcrowded Swiss prison
International Journal of Prisoner Health
ISSN: 1744-9200
Article publication date: 24 October 2022
Issue publication date: 5 September 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Prisons can be epicentres of infectious diseases. However, empirical evidence on the impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in prison is still scarce. This study aims to estimate the seroprevalence rates of anti-SARS-CoV-2 in the largest and most crowded Swiss prison and compare them with the seroprevalence rate in the general population.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional study was conducted in June 2020, one month after the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 in Switzerland. Groups included: people living in detention (PLDs) detained before the beginning of the pandemic (n = 116), PLDs incarcerated after the beginning of the pandemic (n = 61), prison staff and prison healthcare workers (n = 227) and a sample from the general population in the same time period (n = 3,404). The authors assessed anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies.
Findings
PLDs who were incarcerated before the beginning of the pandemic had a significantly lower seroprevalence rate [0.9%, confidence interval (CI)95%: 0.1%–5.9%] compared to the general population (6.3%, CI 95%: 5.6–7.3%) (p = 0.041). The differences between PLDs who were incarcerated before and other groups were marginally significant (PLDs incarcerated after the beginning of the pandemic: 6.6%, CI 95%: 2.5%–16.6%, p = 0.063; prison staff CI 95%: 4.8%, 2.7%–8.6%, p = 0.093). The seroprevalence of prison staff was only slightly and non-significantly lower than that of the general population.
Originality/value
During the first wave, despite overcrowding and interaction with the community, the prison was not a hotspot of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Preventive measures probably helped avoiding clusters of infection. The authors suggest that preventive measures that impact social welfare could be relaxed when overall circulation in the community is low to prevent the negative impact of isolation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the collaborators of the division of prison health of the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), the staff of the Unit of Population Epidemiology of the HUG, the team of the Division of Laboratory Medicine Primary Care Division of the HUG and the staff of the Unilabs Laboratory in Coppet, in particular Jacqueline Bizet. A special thanks to Elvire Rubaviza for project coordination, to Daphne Doomun and Ianis Doomun for compiling the data and to Agathe Cornu-Debreilly, Mathieu Lutz, Christian-Jean Sordet, Vincent Tan and Tin Vo for data collection.
Citation
Gétaz, L., Wolff, H., Gonçalves, L., Togni, G., Stringhini, S., Chacowry Pala, K., Iten, A., Guessous, I., Kaiser, L., Chappuis, F. and Baggio, S. (2023), "SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence study after the first wave among persons living and working in an overcrowded Swiss prison", International Journal of Prisoner Health, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 392-399. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPH-01-2022-0002
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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