Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Antibody Status in Decedents Undergoing Forensic Postmortem Examination in Maryland, May 24 to June 30, 2020

Keri N Althoff; Oliver Laeyendecker; Rong Li; Sally B Coburn; Ethan Klock; Owen R Baker; Thomas C Quinn; Jeffrey Michael; Wendy C Shields; Johnathon Ehsani; F Dennis Thomas; Lindsey A Graham; Zabiullah Ali; Yukari C Manabe; Ling Li

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofaa611

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Antibody Status in Decedents Undergoing Forensic Postmortem Examination in Maryland, May 24 to June 30, 2020

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Dec 15;8(1):ofaa611. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa611. eCollection 2021 Jan.

Authors

Keri N Althoff¹, Oliver Laeyendecker^{2

3}, Rong Li⁴, Sally B Coburn¹, Ethan Klock², Owen R Baker³, Thomas C Quinn^{2

3}, Jeffrey Michael⁵, Wendy C Shields⁵, Johnathon Ehsani⁵, F Dennis Thomas⁶, Lindsey A Graham⁶, Zabiullah Ali⁴, Yukari C Manabe², Ling Li^{4

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
² Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
³ Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁴ Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Maryland Department of Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁵ Center for Injury Research and Policy, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁶ Dunlap and Associates, Inc., Stamford, Connecticut, USA.
⁷ Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Abstract

Seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies was 10% among the subset of decedents undergoing forensic postmortem examination in June in Maryland. Decedents of motor vehicle crashes had similar seroprevalence compared with those with a natural death (including decedents with SARS-CoV-2 infection). Decedents of motor vehicle crashes may be a sentinel surveillance population.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 antibodies; decedents; drug overdose; motor vehicle crash; seroprevalence.

Grants and funding

F31 CA247610/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States