During the month of June, Unicamp will carry out a survey throughout the State of São Paulo to estimate the prevalence of Covid-19 in the São Paulo population. The serological survey will identify the portion of the population that has already had contact with SARS-CoV-2 through the application of rapid enzyme immunoassay tests (Elisa) on blood samples. It will be carried out in 11 cities, with 500 samples collected in each of them, totaling 5,5 tests. The serological survey should help in planning health actions by providing an estimate of how many people have already been infected by the virus, in addition to showing which regions and population groups are most vulnerable to Covid-19.
The tests will be carried out in the cities of São Paulo, Sorocaba, Bauru, Marília, Presidente Prudente, Araçatuba, São José do Rio Preto, Ribeirão Preto, Araraquara, Campinas and São José dos Campos. According to Alessandro Farias, professor at Unicamp's Institute of Biology (IB) and coordinator of the diagnostics front of the Unicamp Task Force against Covid-19, one of the factors that make it difficult to control the pandemic are infections that go unnoticed. "As we chose to test only symptomatic people, we are underreported in the number of infections, with around 60% of individuals being asymptomatic. It will then be possible to have an epidemiological prediction of the number of infected people and understand the evolution of these variants", explains the teacher.
In addition to applying the tests, the University will also carry out the sequencing of around 600 SARS-CoV-2 samples collected across the state. This makes it possible to identify which variants of the coronavirus are in circulation and also to possible detect new variants that may emerge and escape the immune response of people who have already had Covid-19 or the immunity conferred by vaccines. Alessandro Farias emphasizes that the ability to map the population's serology and identify variants will be necessary to control the circulation of the virus in the future: "From now on, it is important to have the ability to carry out this type of monitoring. It is very likely that we will deal with variants of the new coronavirus in the coming years, so we need to understand what these new variants cause in the vaccinated population, in recovered people, if it is possible for reinfections to occur"
The work will be carried out at Unicamp through a partnership with the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel), which coordinated the serological survey applied in Rio Grande do Sul, and has resources allocated by the Public Ministry of Labor. In total, R$2,018 million will be invested. Sample collection in the 11 cities will be carried out by teams from the Intelligence Research and Consulting institute - Ipec (formerly Ibope Intelligence). Professionals will also apply questionnaires about the participants' living and working habits. "The Public Ministry of Labor is interested in knowing the work aspects of these individuals who demonstrate that they have already been infected, what their work was, what type of function they performed", explains Alessandro Farias.
According to the professor, the organization's support has been essential for Unicamp to be a reference in research and provision of services related to the pandemic: "We were only able to start the diagnostic work with their help and this contributed to us coming out ahead. We were the first institution not directly linked to diagnostics to have validation so that we could carry out diagnostic tests without the need for retesting."
