Almost 3k Tatarstan citizens to participate in pilot study of population immunity

7 age groups, 2870 people

Tatarstan is one of the 22 regions of Russia where a pilot study of population immunity will be conducted. These data are needed to identify the features of the epidemic process in the territory of Tatarstan and Russia as a whole. It will be possible to forecast the development of the epidemic and plan measures to combat it in the future. On 25 June, Lyubov Avdonina, the deputy head of the Department of Rospotrebnadzor for the Republic of Tatarstan, spoke in detail about how this will happen.

“A lot of preparatory work has been done, the number of people who will be tested for the presence of class G immunoglobulin has been determined — there will be 2,870 people from seven age groups (1-17 years, 18-20, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and 70 and older). Thus, about 410 people will be tested in each group.

It was decided to test the population in all municipalities of the republic. And the number of people tested will depend on the population in a particular city or district. So, about 900 people will be tested in the millionth city of Kazan, and, for example, in the Agryzsky district — about 14, taking into account age groups.

How people will be selected for testing

Avdonina said that the main requirement for a participant in the pilot study is that he be healthy (regardless of whether he has already had coronavirus or not). Clearly, those who are being treated for COVID-19 now will not have the opportunity to get into the study.

Also, organised teams will not be included in the sample purposefully. This sample will be generated completely randomly. Each medical organisation maintains a register of medical insurance policies — this register will be used when determining candidates for testing. The computer will randomly select people, and they will be invited to clinics for blood collection. So if you receive a call inviting you to donate blood for antibody testing, it will mean that the computer randomly selected you for the study.

When and how the test will take place

• The sampling for research will be clearly limited to the time from June 26 to June 30 inclusive.
• They can take either venous or capillary blood, depending on the wishes of the patient under study.
• Test systems based on enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) will be used to determine whether there is class G immunoglobulin in the blood. These tests have already been delivered to the republic.
• Questioning will be mandatory: they will have to answer a series of questions (for example, whether they had COVID-19 earlier, was in contact with sick people, about chronic diseases, whether they had PCR test for COVID, whether they are being in aelf-isolation or going to work).
• The points of intake materials will be required to take a patient's informed consent and contact information. They need contacts to send the patient the results of the study — either on WhatsApp, by phone, or in any other convenient way.

All sample research in the republic are to be completed by July 10. This will be dome by the Centre for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Republic of Tatarstan. The final conclusions will be made in St. Petersburg, on the basis of the Pasteur St. Petersburg Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. This institute is designated as the main one for studying population immunity, and all information from Tatarstan will be sent there. Epidemiologists and doctors will wait for the first conclusions by about August 1.

Lyubov Avdonina warns:

“Once again, I would like to note that the sampling method will be completely random — it will not be a campaign 'come and donate who wants' or the format 'I passed by, decided to go to donate blood'. We should look at the situation in different territories.