COMMUNITY HEALTH
COVID-19 antibody rate hits 22 percent in Houston.
As many as 22 percent of Houston residents have COVID-19 antibodies, according to a study from Texas Department of State Health Services and University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston researchers.
A four-month-long study of patients across the state, called Texas CARES, found antibodies in 14 to 24 percent of those tested.
“If you want to start to measure how frequent COVID-19 is in our population, looking at antibodies is one of the best ways to do that,” said Eric Boerwinkle, dean of the UTHealth School of Public Health.
The presence of antibodies — proteins in a patient’s immune system that fight off infections — tell researchers that those individuals had contracted the virus in recent months. El Paso led the major cities with 29 percent of residents surveyed testing positive for COVID-19 antibodies, followed by Dallas with 27 percent, San Antonio with 26 percent, Houston at 22 percent, Brownsville with 20 percent and Austin with 15 percent.
Researchers gave nearly 7,000 participants a questionnaire on their health and multiple blood draws to evaluate their immune systems, and also evaluated more than 78,000 unidentified blood samples from clinics across the
state. The survey evaluates how long immunity lasts and asymptomatic individuals’ antibody responses.
Preliminary data indicates that 27 percent of Texas’ Hispanic population and 29 percent of Texans 19 and younger have COVID-19 antibodies.
The frequency of antibodies in young people is
alarming, Boerwinkle said. Many children never know they’re carrying SARSCoV-2, the virus that causes COVID.
“We’re very fortunate young people don’t get sick as frequently when they’re exposed to the virus,” he said. “Right now, we don’t have a vaccine that’s approved for children. We need to be careful, though, since we don’t understand why some children have serious effects of COVID.”
Early reports show COVID-19 antibodies living in the body for as long as eight months after infection, according to Science, a peer-reviewed medical journal. The proteins are key to understanding infection rates and risk factors for the virus.
Texas researchers said it is too early to determine how long antibodies last from the statewide study, but said, so far, it’s rare to find patients who tested positive for the proteins who test negative on a second blood draw.
“The Texas CARES study is cutting-edge science that will provide valuable information to enable Texas to formulate public health strategies that will ultimately defeat the pandemic,” Dr. John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a statement.
Antibody infusions from people who recovered from COVID-19 are part of some medical providers’ treatment strategies. Several monoclonal antibody drugs are already available under emergency use authorization for use in patients who are at risk for severe complications.
The study, which began in October, aims to enroll 75,000 people.