Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in hemodialysis patients in Senegal: a multicenter cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Hemodialysis patients are among high-risk groups for COVID-19. Africa is the continent with the lowest number of cases in the general population but we have little information about the disease burden in dialysis patients. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to describe the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the hemodialysis population of Senegal. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted a multicenter cross-sectional survey, between June and September 2020 involving 10 public dialysis units randomly selected in eight regions of Senegal. After seeking their consent, we included 303 patients aged ≥ 18 years and hemodialysis for ≥ 3 months. Clinical symptoms and biological parameters were collected from medical records. Patients' blood samples were tested with Abbott SARS-CoV-2 Ig G assay using an Architect system. Statistical tests were performed with STATA 12.0. RESULTS: Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was 21.1% (95% CI = 16.7-26.1%). We noticed a wide variability in SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence between regions ranging from 5.6 to 51.7%. Among the 38 patients who underwent nasal swab testing, only six had a PCR-confirmed infection and all of them did seroconvert. Suggestive clinical symptoms were reported by 28.1% of seropositive patients and the majority of them presented asymptomatic disease. After multivariate analysis, a previous contact with a confirmed case and living in a high population density region were associated with the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. CONCLUSION: This study presents to our knowledge the first seroprevalence data in African hemodialysis patients. Compared to data from other continents, we found a higher proportion of patients with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies but a lower lethality rate.

Epidemiological patterns of chronic kidney disease in black African elders: a retrospective study in West Africa.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is frequently described in elders. This study describes the epidemiological patterns of patients ≥60 years old admitted in our department during one year. The prevalence of CKD was 10.8% (60/552). The mean age of the patients was 70.5 years (60-84 years) and the sex ratio (male:female) was 1.08. The mean serum creatinine level was 7.10 mg/dL (1.31-25.0 mg/dL) and more than two-third of the patients presented CKD stage 4-5. Causes of CKD were dominated by hypertension (30%) and diabetes (25%). Prevalence of inpatients aged 60-69 years old was higher than in those ≥80 years old but lower than that in patients aged 70-79 years. At admission, 83.3% of the patients were hypertensive, 75% were anemic and 13% presented proteinuria. The main co-morbidities associated with CKD were neoplasms (17% of cases), chronic heart disease (15% of cases) and pneumonia (15% of cases). Furosemide was prescribed in 55% of the patients, calcium channel blockers in 23% of the patients and ACE inhibitors in 20% of the patients. Renal replacement therapy was not performed for any patient. Evolution was favorable in the majority of patients (77%), but 23% died mainly because of uremia and infections.