About Three Percent Of Dutch Blood Donors Have Antibodies Against The Coronavirus

About three percent of Dutch blood donors have antibodies against the coronavirus. This is evident from figures from Sanquin Blood Bank, presented by RIVM (Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) director Jaap van Dissel. According to him, this would mean that hundreds of thousands of Dutch people have already had the virus.

Since the beginning of April, the blood of more than 4,000 donors has been examined by Sanquin for antibodies against the coronavirus. That would show how many people have ever had the virus and may now be immune.

Antibodies developed

Research into antibodies in donated blood plasma is still ongoing, but Van Dissel dares to anticipate the figures.

"Three percent have developed antibodies, so if you look through your eye hair, three percent of the Dutch have developed antibodies against the coronavirus." This would mean that the group of the population who may have already had the virus, is over 500,000 Dutch people.

The study also found that where data is known, donors in previous blood donations had not yet developed antibodies, meaning they have recently become infected. Furthermore, according to Van Dissel, the research so far shows that people with mild complaints can also get a lot of antibodies, contrary to what he reported last week. These figures help to implement a policy against the coronavirus, if it appears that more people have immunity. "It provides an added barrier for the virus to continue to spread widely," said Van Dissel.

Blood bank Sanquin emphasizes that these are preliminary figures. "The test is not yet completely finished," said spokesperson Merlijn van Hasselt against Hart van Nederland. “This number is based on more than 4000 tested donations, we want 7000. But it is therefore an indication of the percentage that has had the coronavirus, and the closer we get to the 7000 donations, we better leave this number to the Dutch population reflect." The researchers' findings may soon be published in a scientific journal, Van Dissel said.
Possibly more Dutch people infected

Internist-infectiologist Kees Brinkman of OLVG Amsterdam suspects that the figures are even higher. "Because the blood bank only sees 100% healthy people, I think that is an underestimate," he writes on Twitter.

Link: [link to www.hartvannederland.nl (secure)]


(Page is in Dutch, so got to use Google Translate for those of us who don't speak Dutch.

Last Edited by Let's Go Brandon on 04/16/2020 10:31 AM