Serological survey of SARS-CoV-2 in blood donors in sub-Saharan African: evaluation of viral dissemination via the Francophone Africa Blood Transfusion Research Network – AFRACOV2

Since December 2019, a novel human coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has emerged from China where the first cases of the COVID-19 were described. By October 2020, more than 38 million cases have been reported worldwide, including more than 1.1 million deaths. In Africa, 1.6 million individual would have been infected, and 40,000 died (lethality rate 2.5 %).
With the AFRACOV-2 project, the French National Reference Centre for Transfusion Infectious Risks (CNR RIT, INTS, France) wants to evaluate the diffusion of SARS-CoV-2 in sub-Saharan Africa, through a seroprevalence survey in blood donors from six countries belonging to the Francophone Africa Blood Transfusion Research Network (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, and Central African Republic). Two groups of samples will be included in the study: (1) 1000 samples from a bio-collection of plasma collected in 2011-2012, and available at CNR RIT, used as a pre-pandemic control, and (2) a bio-collection of 6300 plasma samples, prospectively gathered in the frame of the current project, from leftover blood used to screen blood donations. 600 µL from the 350 first donations collected over 3 periods (April/May, July/August, October/November) were or will be stored in the six participating countries (1050 samples/country), as well as demo-epidemiological data (date of donation, age, gender, location (urban/rural), donor status (first-time/repeat), type of donation (voluntary/replacement), and ABO blood group. Each donation will be tested for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 with the Platelia SARS-CoV-2 Total Ab (Biorad). Serology data will be corrected for demographic bias, and analysed with regard to pre-pandemic and pandemic contexts.