This study made it possible to characterize healthcare workers' sociodemographic and clinical factors, estimate seroprevalence, and identify the factors associated with the development of antibodies.
Most of the participants were female, this could explain why women represent a significant weight in this population of healthcare workers, which was not different from three other studies of seroprevalence of SARS-COV2 among healthcare workers carried out in other countries. (4, 5) The percentage of participants with a comorbidity or toxic habit was very low, which was different from other studies whose comorbidities such as high blood pressure, asthma, and diabetes had a high rate and had statistically significant associations with seroprevalence. (6–10) Some other studies showed no relationship between seroprevalence and certain risk factors such as age, sex, and comorbidities. (11) Almost no signs and symptoms compatible with COVID-19 have been detected and more than half of healthcare workers have already received the SARS-COV2 vaccine, while in other studies some symptoms such as loss of smell (23.5%), loss of taste (20.0%) and respiratory distress (16.7%) (p < 0.05) were associated with the seroprevalence of SARS-COV2 in workers of health. (6)
During the data collection nearly 62% of the participants had received at least one dose of vaccine against SARS-Cov2 and the seroprevalence was around 12% among unvaccinated people, these results are not different with other studies carried out in other countries. (21)The national seroprevalence was 44%, and the age group 60 and over was the most affected. This could be explained by the fact that this age group had the highest proportion of participants vaccinated against covid19; some studies did not really show a relationship between age and the seroprevalence rate, however, several others confirmed an increase in the prevalence rate with age; this would imply that the vaccination rate in people over 60 was higher so there was a better vaccination response in this age group. (12–17)
Never wearing masks increases the risk of developing antibodies against SARS-COV2. As using personal protective measures is one of the ways to prevent the spread of the virus, obviously, not practicing them could increase the risk of infection in this population of healthcare workers. Given that this study was a seroprevalence, i.e., it sought to detect the presence of SARS-COV2 antibodies, this result proved the virus transmission among healthcare workers who did not use a mask to protect themselves. (18–20)
Never wearing masks was increases the risk of developing antibodies against SARS-COV2. As the use of personal protective measures is one of the ways to prevent the spread of the virus, obviously not practicing them could increase the risk of infection in this population of healthcare workers. Given that this study was a seroprevalence i.e. it sought to detect the presence of SARS-COV2 antibodies, this result proved the virus’ transmission among healthcare workers who did not use a mask as means of protection. (18–20)
This study certainly has some limitations, There was a high prevalence of covid-19 among healthcare workers in Haiti, but the vast majority of workers had already been vaccinated prior to data collection, so there was a risk of detecting antibodies from vaccination, which could be considered a bias, although there was a category of unvaccinated participants for whom the prevalence was estimated to be significantly lower than overall.
The results of this study can be extrapolated to the entire target population, since participants were selected by a random draw stratified by department and health institution. All subjects from the target population therefore had an equal chance of being included in the study's source population.
In conclusion, COVID-19 in Haiti in the population of health workers affects both sexes with a female predominance; people aged 60 and over were most affected. Not wearing a mask increased the risk of getting sick and developing antibodies.
We recommended of the Healthcare workers to continue with protective measures and vaccination against SARS-Cov-2.