The agents of the CHU of Rennes and the ten establishments of the Haute-Bretagne hospital group, that is 13,000 people, will undergo serological tests to measure the prevalence of the new coronavirus on this population particularly exposed to the disease, the establishment announced on Monday.
Read also: Containment, masks, chloroquine ... A doctor accuses
This testing policy, which aims to better prevent the risk of contamination of caregivers, will be " the first study of this magnitude, conducted nationally, which will measure the prevalence of Covid-19 in the population of hospital employees ," said in a press release Véronique Anatole-Touzet, director general of the CHU of Rennes.
To carry out the study, the CHU established a partnership, via its endowment fund, with the Breton company NGBiotech which produces a serological test allowing a rapid diagnosis. The serological strip test lets you know if a person is or has been in contact with the virus. The tests will last approximately six weeks.
Determine "the proportion of the hospital population (...) having been contaminated"
The objective is to determine " the proportion of the hospital population (...) having been contaminated by the SARS-COV2 virus, to better understand the possible factors associated with this contamination (socio-demographic parameters, clinical and environmental risk factors, characteristics professional ...), as well as to assess the impact of the employee protection policy implemented, "said the press release.
The person tested will also have to answer a questionnaire (establishment, demographic characteristics, profession, service, chronic pathology, clinical signs, smoking, etc.). The questionnaires and the test results will then be anonymized for analysis.
A more detailed survey of the associated factors and the experience of the epidemic will also be conducted with a sample of 1,000 CHU professionals. Follow-up questionnaires and new tests on D30 and D90 will also be offered to several samples of professionals, one of which will be drawn.
" The lessons learned from this study will advance medical knowledge regarding the immune mechanisms linked to the Covid-19 infection, including its evolution over time, for which we still have little data, " said the press release.
Since the start of the epidemic, 72 professionals from the Rennes University Hospital have been infected with Covid-19 without the origin of the contamination being proven (in the professional or private context). This represents less than 1% of a total of more than 9000 professionals. In comparison, the number of people infected in Brittany is 2% of the population.
Read also: Coronavirus: Europe reserves 400 million vaccines