COVID-19 in Iraq: An epidemiological, serological and biochemical study

COVID-19 is a new epidemic with a global burden and there is a need to determine its regional and geographical characteristics. Therefore, in our study, we aimed to show some epidemiological characteristics, biochemical changes and seroprevalence of IgM and IgG antibodies in the Iraqi population. The COVID-19 information used in the study was collected from the Ministry of Health database. The biochemical study included 154 COVID-19 patients who were RT-PCR positive. Venous blood samples were collected from both groups and tested for the determination of some biomarkers using chemical autoanalyser and commercial kits. The serological study design consisted of two parts, a retrospective part covering blood samples tested from 23 July 2020 to the end of December 2021 (6098 samples). The prospective part included 385 samples from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022. IgM and IgG were detected using Rapid Test kits. The study shows that there is a significant correlation between ESR, LDH, CRP, D dimer, ferritin, urea and creatinine in COVID-19 patients, indicating multiple organ damage during infection. ALT and AST are significantly correlated with ESR only. The overall SARS-CoV-2 IgM seroprevalence was 22.3% and was not affected by gender. However, the highest seroprevalence was observed in the 40-59 age range. IgG overall seroprevalence was 36.20%, with a significant difference by sex and a higher rate in those aged ≥50 years. Significant differences were found between the different methods used to calculate the R0 value. There is a large difference between the actual number of COVID-19 cases and the expected number of cases. This difference points to the effectiveness of the control measures implemented during the pandemic.