Journal of Preventive Medicine

Population-Based Random Survey for detection of COVID-19 Infection and Seroprevalence in Benghazi- Libya May/2020

Background: Covid-19 is a significant health problem worldwide with a fear of being unstoppable. Screening for COVID-19 is of great public health importance as it might provide better understanding of epidemiological status and might benefit decision making.

Aims: To detect hidden COVID-19 cases and to identify immunity status against COVID-19 of Benghazi population.

Methodology: This screening was undertaken on a cross-section of the population between the 2nd and the7th of May 2020. A multistage stratified sample was drawn from randomly selected geographical areas of Benghazi, the sampling units were weighted in respect to population density in each area.

Results: A sample of 600 participant has been screened for COVID-19 current infection or seropositive antibody assay, all of them tested negative. Male constituted 50.5% of the sample, age ranged from 10 to 90 years, 94.9% Libyan. Only 1.1 % has been abroad since January 2020, 0.7% has household contact with an arrival from abroad. COVID-19 like symptoms were almost negligible, they were reported as the following, 0.7% headache, 0.5% for each of fever and breathlessness, cough and sore throat by % 0.3 each and diarrhea by 0.2% of the study sample.

Conclusion: This survey revealed that there are no active undetected cases of the disease; in addition to that COVID-19 infection was not circulating in Benghazi population prior to the study time.

Author(s):

Amal  A Elfakhri, Abdelghffar F Abdelghffar, Ahmed F Elhassi, Rafik R Elmehdawi, Fathia S Belkasem, Ahmed B Elhaddad, Monier S A Mohammed, Amina A Ashekteria, Fatma I E Najem, Aya M F Alfarjany

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