Marwan M Badawi^1,, Hazim I El-amin¹, Ammar N Mohammed¹, Elsiddig H Elfaki¹, Tagwa M Badawi², Marwa M Badawi³, Abdullah A Othman¹

Until the 21^st of June 2020, more than 1,773,084 worldwide were confirmed cases in the pandemic, among which 111,652 deaths as reported by international health authorities. Majority of patients show a mild presentation of the disease and have good prognosis. The current study was designed to investigate seropositivity of practicing healthcare workers and identify their related clinical symptoms if they found to be seropositive. Known previous positive healthcare workers as well as staff working in isolation wards were excluded. Thirty one healthcare workers were introduced in the study. All participants were firstly screened by Covid-19 ICT screening kits. Covid-19 IgM and IgG antibody levels were further detected using automated CLIA assay for all ICT reactive samples to IgM, IgG or both. Among the 4 participants who were found to be IgM seropositive after screening only 2 (50%) were found to be positive after conducting CLIA assay. Moreover, among the IgG seropositive specimens according to initial screening, 6 (85%) were found to be seropositive after conducting CLIA assay. Eventually, 7 (22%) practicing healthcare workers were found to be exposed to Covid-19 despite of the reactive antibody class as indicated by CLIA assay. Sudan is lacking organized Covid-19 screening programs due to the shortage of testing resources. The current result- although of the low sample size indicated a prevalence of 22% seropositivity among people who look healthy and practice their regular jobs. Taking that under considerations, Covid-19 viral infection prevalence peak might has been passed. Other large-scale studies are appreciated to be approached to better judge the current findings.

Africa, Coronavirus, healthcare workers, Sudan