Maternal SARS-CoV-2 sero-surveillance using newborn dried blood spot (DBS) screening specimens highlights extent of low vaccine uptake in pregnant women

Moat, Stuart J., Hillier, Sharon, de Souza, Sikha, Perry, Malorie, Cottrell, Simon, Lench, Alex, Payne, Heather and Jolles, Stephen 2022. Maternal SARS-CoV-2 sero-surveillance using newborn dried blood spot (DBS) screening specimens highlights extent of low vaccine uptake in pregnant women. Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics 18 (5) , 2089498. 10.1080/21645515.2022.2089498

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Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 vaccine uptake in pregnant women is believed to be low and lags behind the general population contributing to increased hospital admissions, and poor maternal and fetal outcomes. However, there is a paucity of information on the SARS-CoV-2 serostatus of pregnant women to help inform policy planning and assess impact of interventions to improve vaccine uptake in this at-risk group. We analyzed 8,683 residual, anonymized newborn screening dried bloodspot (DBS) specimens during a 15-month period (October 2020 to December 2021) in Wales (UK) for SARS-CoV-2 IgG-antibodies. We compared newborn DBS antibody-positive rates to the percentage number of pregnant women vaccinated and the percentage number of antibody-positive adults. In December 2021, 47.8% of women in Wales had received two doses of the vaccine by their delivery date; however, only 41.1% of DBS specimens had high antibody concentrations. Results indicate that a proportion of pregnant women remain at higher-risk of COVID complications, particularly given the reduction in antibody neutralization of Omicron versus the Delta variant. Our study demonstrates the utility of newborn screening DBS specimens to monitor SARS-CoV-2 serostatus in pregnant women representing maternal vaccination and natural infection in almost real-time, defining the immunity gap and impact of any interventions.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis Open Access
ISSN:	2164-5515
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	4 July 2022
Date of Acceptance:	10 June 2022
Last Modified:	10 May 2023 22:04
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/150952

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