01.04.2022

GBE professors conducted a study on seroprevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, which was published in PLOS ONE

IBU InFocus

The study, "Antibody seroprevalence against SARS-CoV-2 within the Canton of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina—One Year Later," was conducted by professors and students from the Department of Genetics and Bioengineering at IBU, as well as colleagues from Eurofarm Laboratory and Alea Genetic Center Sarajevo.

This study was accepted and published in PLOS ONE (Impact Factor 3.2, Q1), a prestigious scientific journal published since 2006 by the Public Library of Science (PLOS).

Prof.Dr. Damir Marjanović, Assistant Prof.Dr. Adna Ašić, Assistant Prof.Dr. Larisa Bešić, and Assistant Sabina Halilović Šahinović, in collaboration with Master student Osman Hasanić, conducted extensive research from September 2020 to May 2021. This research was led by Eurofarm's Jasminka Mujić and also Assistant Prof.Dr. Aida Kulo Ćesić from Faculty of Medicine, University of Sarajevo joined the team.

The findings revealed that 29.9 percent of the 18,066 people tested were positive for COVID-19 antibodies. This is a significant increase from the previous study, which was conducted from April to June 2020 and had only 3.77 percent positive samples. Also, it was found that the antibody level was significantly higher in males when compared to females, as well as in participants older than 50 years of age when compared to younger individuals.

The article is available on https://journals.plos.org/plosone/