engleski

SARS-CoV-2 in Croatia: one year later

The rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide pandemic which caused a worldwide crisis with profound effects on public health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been over 130 million confirmed cases and almost 3 million fatalities since December 2019. In Croatia, the first case was detected on February 25, 2020. Reference Centre for laboratory diagnosis of viral respiratory diseases Croatian Ministry of Health at the Croatian Institute of Public Health (CIPH) implemented SARS-CoV-2 molecular diagnostics according to the WHO protocols. Molecular testing is still the mainstay of diagnosis, supplemented by point-of-care antigen testing. CIPH reference laboratory analysed more than 200000 samples and 17.8% were positive. Rapid antigen testing was started in the November 2020 and till now we analysed more than 4000 samples, mostly symptomatic persons (42% were positive). While antibody testing is generally not useful for acute management, it can be used for retrospective diagnosis and seroprevalence studies to understand disease prevalence in the population. Two seroprevalence studies were conducted in the general population, after the 1st and 2nd wave, respectively. A total of 1088 and 1436 serum samples were tested for the presence of IgG SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, and IgG antibodies were detected in 2.2% and 25.2% participants, respectively. SARS-CoV-2 is believed to spread predominantly via short-range airborne aerosol, respiratory droplets, and direct or indirect contact with infectious respiratory droplets. Therefore, we have analysed environmental samples from COVID-19 patients’ surroundings and found the virus in 3/41 (7.3%) samples.

SARS-CoV-2 ; epidemiology ; Croatia

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