Epidemiological, virological and serological investigation of a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak (Alpha variant) in a primary school: A prospective longitudinal study.
PLoS One
; 17(8): e0272663, 2022.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1993491
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To report a prospective epidemiological, virological and serological investigation of a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in a primary school.METHODS:
As part of a longitudinal, prospective, school-based surveillance study, this investigation involved repeated testing of 73 pupils, 9 teachers, 13 non-teaching staff and 26 household members of participants who tested positive, with rapid antigen tests and/or RT-PCR (Day 0-2 and Day 5-7), serologies on dried capillary blood samples (Day 0-2 and Day 30), contact tracing interviews and SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing.RESULTS:
We identified 20 children (aged 4 to 6 years from 4 school classes), 2 teachers and a total of 4 household members who were infected by the Alpha variant during this outbreak. Infection attack rates were between 11.8 and 62.0% among pupils from the 4 school classes, 22.2% among teachers and 0% among non-teaching staff. Secondary attack rate among household members was 15.4%. Symptoms were reported by 63% of infected children, 100% of teachers and 50% of household members. All analysed sequences but one showed 100% identity. Serological tests detected 8 seroconversions unidentified by SARS-CoV-2 virological tests.CONCLUSIONS:
This study confirmed child-to-child and child-to-adult SARS-CoV-2 transmission and introduction into households. Effective measures to limit transmission in schools have the potential to reduce the overall community circulation.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Variants
Limits:
Adult
/
Child
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
PLoS One
Journal subject:
Science
/
Medicine
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Journal.pone.0272663
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