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Claveau S, Mahmood F, Amir B, Kwan JJW, White C, Vipond J, Iannattone L. COVID-19 and Cancer Care: A Review and Practical Guide to Caring for Cancer Patients in the Era of COVID-19. Curr Oncol 2024; 31:5330-5343. [PMID: 39330021 PMCID: PMC11431468 DOI: 10.3390/curroncol31090393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2024] [Revised: 08/21/2024] [Accepted: 08/26/2024] [Indexed: 09/28/2024] Open
Abstract
COVID-19, a novel infectious disease caused by the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2020, has had a profound impact on healthcare, both at the individual and population level. The impact at the population level was felt most acutely during the emergency phase of the pandemic, with hospital capacity issues leading to widespread disruptions and delays in the delivery of healthcare services such as screening programs and elective surgeries. While hospitals are no longer being acutely overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, the impact of the virus on vulnerable patient populations such as cancer patients continues to be of ongoing consequence. Cancer patients remain at high risk of hospitalization, ICU admission, and death due to COVID-19, even in the era of vaccination. Infection prevention and risk mitigation strategies such air quality control, masking, testing, vaccination, and treatment should therefore be integrated into the usual care and counseling of cancer patients moving forward to avoid preventable morbidity and mortality from this infection and ensure the safety of this vulnerable cohort as they navigate their cancer diagnosis and treatment in the era of COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Claveau
- Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
| | - Farhan Mahmood
- Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
| | - Baraa Amir
- College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia
| | | | - Cheryl White
- Independent Researcher, Toronto, ON M6P 3X9, Canada
| | - Joe Vipond
- Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
| | - Lisa Iannattone
- Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
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2
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Chakraborty AK, Wang H, Ramazi P. From Policy to Prediction: Assessing Forecasting Accuracy in an Integrated Framework with Machine Learning and Disease Models. J Comput Biol 2024. [PMID: 39092497 DOI: 10.1089/cmb.2023.0377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/04/2024] Open
Abstract
To improve the forecasting accuracy of the spread of infectious diseases, a hybrid model was recently introduced where the commonly assumed constant disease transmission rate was actively estimated from enforced mitigating policy data by a machine learning (ML) model and then fed to an extended susceptible-infected-recovered model to forecast the number of infected cases. Testing only one ML model, that is, gradient boosting model (GBM), the work left open whether other ML models would perform better. Here, we compared GBMs, linear regressions, k-nearest neighbors, and Bayesian networks (BNs) in forecasting the number of COVID-19-infected cases in the United States and Canadian provinces based on policy indices of future 35 days. There was no significant difference in the mean absolute percentage errors of these ML models over the combined dataset [H ( 3 ) = 3.10 , p = 0.38 ]. In two provinces, a significant difference was observed [H ( 3 ) = 8.77 , H ( 3 ) = 8.07 , p < 0.05 ], yet posthoc tests revealed no significant difference in pairwise comparisons. Nevertheless, BNs significantly outperformed the other models in most of the training datasets. The results put forward that the ML models have equal forecasting power overall, and BNs are best for data-fitting applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amit K Chakraborty
- Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
| | - Hao Wang
- Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
| | - Pouria Ramazi
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada
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3
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Li J, Ionides EL, King AA, Pascual M, Ning N. Inference on spatiotemporal dynamics for coupled biological populations. J R Soc Interface 2024; 21:20240217. [PMID: 38981516 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2024.0217] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2024] [Accepted: 06/07/2024] [Indexed: 07/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Mathematical models in ecology and epidemiology must be consistent with observed data in order to generate reliable knowledge and evidence-based policy. Metapopulation systems, which consist of a network of connected sub-populations, pose technical challenges in statistical inference owing to nonlinear, stochastic interactions. Numerical difficulties encountered in conducting inference can obstruct the core scientific questions concerning the link between the mathematical models and the data. Recently, an algorithm has been proposed that enables computationally tractable likelihood-based inference for high-dimensional partially observed stochastic dynamic models of metapopulation systems. We use this algorithm to build a statistically principled data analysis workflow for metapopulation systems. Via a case study of COVID-19, we show how this workflow addresses the limitations of previous approaches. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a situation where mathematical models and their policy implications are widely visible, and we revisit an influential metapopulation model used to inform basic epidemiological understanding early in the pandemic. Our methods support self-critical data analysis, enabling us to identify and address model weaknesses, leading to a new model with substantially improved statistical fit and parameter identifiability. Our results suggest that the lockdown initiated on 23 January 2020 in China was more effective than previously thought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jifan Li
- Department of Statistics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | - Edward L Ionides
- Department of Statistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Aaron A King
- Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
| | - Mercedes Pascual
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
- Departments of Biology and Environmental Studies, New York University, NY 10012, USA
| | - Ning Ning
- Department of Statistics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
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4
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Pant B, Safdar S, Santillana M, Gumel AB. Mathematical Assessment of the Role of Human Behavior Changes on SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Dynamics in the United States. Bull Math Biol 2024; 86:92. [PMID: 38888744 DOI: 10.1007/s11538-024-01324-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2024] [Accepted: 05/28/2024] [Indexed: 06/20/2024]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only presented a major global public health and socio-economic crisis, but has also significantly impacted human behavior towards adherence (or lack thereof) to public health intervention and mitigation measures implemented in communities worldwide. This study is based on the use of mathematical modeling approaches to assess the extent to which SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics is impacted by population-level changes of human behavior due to factors such as (a) the severity of transmission (such as disease-induced mortality and level of symptomatic transmission), (b) fatigue due to the implementation of mitigation interventions measures (e.g., lockdowns) over a long (extended) period of time, (c) social peer-pressure, among others. A novel behavior-epidemiology model, which takes the form of a deterministic system of nonlinear differential equations, is developed and fitted using observed cumulative SARS-CoV-2 mortality data during the first wave in the United States. The model fits the observed data, as well as makes a more accurate prediction of the observed daily SARS-CoV-2 mortality during the first wave (March 2020-June 2020), in comparison to the equivalent model which does not explicitly account for changes in human behavior. This study suggests that, as more newly-infected individuals become asymptomatically-infectious, the overall level of positive behavior change can be expected to significantly decrease (while new cases may rise, particularly if asymptomatic individuals have higher contact rate, in comparison to symptomatic individuals).
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Affiliation(s)
- Binod Pant
- Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA
| | - Salman Safdar
- Department of Mathematics, University of Karachi, University Road, Karachi, 75270, Pakistan
| | - Mauricio Santillana
- Machine Intelligence Group for the Betterment of Health and the Environment, Network Science Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
- Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Abba B Gumel
- Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA.
- Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa.
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5
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Weng Y, Tian L, Boothroyd D, Lee J, Zhang K, Lu D, Lindan CP, Bollyky J, Huang B, Rutherford GW, Maldonado Y, Desai M. Adjusting Incidence Estimates with Laboratory Test Performances: A Pragmatic Maximum Likelihood Estimation-Based Approach. Epidemiology 2024; 35:295-307. [PMID: 38465940 PMCID: PMC11022996 DOI: 10.1097/ede.0000000000001725] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2022] [Accepted: 01/28/2024] [Indexed: 03/12/2024]
Abstract
Understanding the incidence of disease is often crucial for public policy decision-making, as observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Estimating incidence is challenging, however, when the definition of incidence relies on tests that imperfectly measure disease, as in the case when assays with variable performance are used to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus. To our knowledge, there are no pragmatic methods to address the bias introduced by the performance of labs in testing for the virus. In the setting of a longitudinal study, we developed a maximum likelihood estimation-based approach to estimate laboratory performance-adjusted incidence using the expectation-maximization algorithm. We constructed confidence intervals (CIs) using both bootstrapped-based and large-sample interval estimator approaches. We evaluated our methods through extensive simulation and applied them to a real-world study (TrackCOVID), where the primary goal was to determine the incidence of and risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in the San Francisco Bay Area from July 2020 to March 2021. Our simulations demonstrated that our method converged rapidly with accurate estimates under a variety of scenarios. Bootstrapped-based CIs were comparable to the large-sample estimator CIs with a reasonable number of incident cases, shown via a simulation scenario based on the real TrackCOVID study. In more extreme simulated scenarios, the coverage of large-sample interval estimation outperformed the bootstrapped-based approach. Results from the application to the TrackCOVID study suggested that assuming perfect laboratory test performance can lead to an inaccurate inference of the incidence. Our flexible, pragmatic method can be extended to a variety of disease and study settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yingjie Weng
- From the Quantitative Sciences Unit, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
| | - Lu Tian
- Biomedical Data Science, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
| | - Derek Boothroyd
- From the Quantitative Sciences Unit, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
| | - Justin Lee
- From the Quantitative Sciences Unit, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
| | - Kenny Zhang
- From the Quantitative Sciences Unit, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
| | - Di Lu
- From the Quantitative Sciences Unit, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
| | - Christina P. Lindan
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA
- Institute for Global Health Sciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
| | - Jenna Bollyky
- Division of Primary Care & Population Health, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
| | - Beatrice Huang
- Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA
| | - George W. Rutherford
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA
- Institute for Global Health Sciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
| | - Yvonne Maldonado
- Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
| | - Manisha Desai
- From the Quantitative Sciences Unit, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
- Biomedical Data Science, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
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6
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Quek ZBR, Ng SH. Hybrid-Capture Target Enrichment in Human Pathogens: Identification, Evolution, Biosurveillance, and Genomic Epidemiology. Pathogens 2024; 13:275. [PMID: 38668230 PMCID: PMC11054155 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens13040275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2024] [Revised: 03/11/2024] [Accepted: 03/18/2024] [Indexed: 04/29/2024] Open
Abstract
High-throughput sequencing (HTS) has revolutionised the field of pathogen genomics, enabling the direct recovery of pathogen genomes from clinical and environmental samples. However, pathogen nucleic acids are often overwhelmed by those of the host, requiring deep metagenomic sequencing to recover sufficient sequences for downstream analyses (e.g., identification and genome characterisation). To circumvent this, hybrid-capture target enrichment (HC) is able to enrich pathogen nucleic acids across multiple scales of divergences and taxa, depending on the panel used. In this review, we outline the applications of HC in human pathogens-bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses-including identification, genomic epidemiology, antimicrobial resistance genotyping, and evolution. Importantly, we explored the applicability of HC to clinical metagenomics, which ultimately requires more work before it is a reliable and accurate tool for clinical diagnosis. Relatedly, the utility of HC was exemplified by COVID-19, which was used as a case study to illustrate the maturity of HC for recovering pathogen sequences. As we unravel the origins of COVID-19, zoonoses remain more relevant than ever. Therefore, the role of HC in biosurveillance studies is also highlighted in this review, which is critical in preparing us for the next pandemic. We also found that while HC is a popular tool to study viruses, it remains underutilised in parasites and fungi and, to a lesser extent, bacteria. Finally, weevaluated the future of HC with respect to bait design in the eukaryotic groups and the prospect of combining HC with long-read HTS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Z. B. Randolph Quek
- Defence Medical & Environmental Research Institute, DSO National Laboratories, Singapore 117510, Singapore
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7
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Rauch W, Schenk H, Rauch N, Harders M, Oberacher H, Insam H, Markt R, Kreuzinger N. Estimating actual SARS-CoV-2 infections from secondary data. Sci Rep 2024; 14:6732. [PMID: 38509181 PMCID: PMC10954653 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-57238-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2023] [Accepted: 03/15/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Eminent in pandemic management is accurate information on infection dynamics to plan for timely installation of control measures and vaccination campaigns. Despite huge efforts in diagnostic testing of individuals, the underestimation of the actual number of SARS-CoV-2 infections remains significant due to the large number of undocumented cases. In this paper we demonstrate and compare three methods to estimate the dynamics of true infections based on secondary data i.e., (a) test positivity, (b) infection fatality and (c) wastewater monitoring. The concept is tested with Austrian data on a national basis for the period of April 2020 to December 2022. Further, we use the results of prevalence studies from the same period to generate (upper and lower bounds of) credible intervals for true infections for four data points. Model parameters are subsequently estimated by applying Approximate Bayesian Computation-rejection sampling and Genetic Algorithms. The method is then validated for the case study Vienna. We find that all three methods yield fairly similar results for estimating the true number of infections, which supports the idea that all three datasets contain similar baseline information. None of them is considered superior, as their advantages and shortcomings depend on the specific case study at hand.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Rauch
- Unit of Environmental Engineering, Department of Infrastructure, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 13, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria.
| | - Hannes Schenk
- Unit of Environmental Engineering, Department of Infrastructure, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 13, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Nikolaus Rauch
- Interactive Graphics and Simulation Group, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Matthias Harders
- Interactive Graphics and Simulation Group, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Herbert Oberacher
- Institute of Legal Medicine and Core Facility Metabolomics, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Heribert Insam
- Department of Microbiology, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Rudolf Markt
- Department of Health Sciences and Social Work, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Villach, Austria
| | - Norbert Kreuzinger
- Institute of Water Quality and Resource Management, Technical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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8
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Smirnova A, Baroonian M. Reconstruction of incidence reporting rate for SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant of COVID-19 pandemic in the US. Infect Dis Model 2024; 9:70-83. [PMID: 38125200 PMCID: PMC10733106 DOI: 10.1016/j.idm.2023.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2023] [Revised: 12/03/2023] [Accepted: 12/03/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
In recent years, advanced regularization techniques have emerged as a powerful tool aimed at stable estimation of infectious disease parameters that are crucial for future projections, prevention, and control. Unlike other system parameters, i.e., incubation and recovery rates, the case reporting rate, Ψ, and the time-dependent effective reproduction number, R e ( t ) , are directly influenced by a large number of factors making it impossible to pre-estimate these parameters in any meaningful way. In this study, we propose a novel iteratively-regularized trust-region optimization algorithm, combined with SuSvIuIvRD compartmental model, for stable reconstruction of Ψ and R e ( t ) from reported epidemic data on vaccination percentages, incidence cases, and daily deaths. The innovative regularization procedure exploits (and takes full advantage of) a unique structure of the Jacobian and Hessian approximation for the nonlinear observation operator. The proposed inversion method is thoroughly tested with synthetic and real SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant data for different regions in the United States of America from July 9, 2021, to November 25, 2021. Our study shows that case reporting rate during the Delta wave of COVID-19 pandemic in the US is between 12% and 37%, with most states being in the range from 15% to 25%. This confirms earlier accounts on considerable under-reporting of COVID-19 cases due to the impact of "silent spreaders" and the limitations of testing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Smirnova
- Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA
| | - Mona Baroonian
- Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA
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9
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Aguilar-Ruiz JS, Ruiz R, Giráldez R. Advance Monitoring of COVID-19 Incidence Based on Taxi Mobility: The Infection Ratio Measure. Healthcare (Basel) 2024; 12:517. [PMID: 38470628 PMCID: PMC10930786 DOI: 10.3390/healthcare12050517] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2023] [Revised: 01/27/2024] [Accepted: 02/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on various aspects of our lives, affecting personal, occupational, economic, and social spheres. Much has been learned since the early 2020s, which will be very useful when the next pandemic emerges. In general, mobility and virus spread are strongly related. However, most studies analyze the impact of COVID-19 on mobility, but not much research has focused on analyzing the impact of mobility on virus transmission, especially from the point of view of monitoring virus incidence, which is extremely important for making sound decisions to control any epidemiological threat to public health. As a result of a thorough analysis of COVID-19 and mobility data, this work introduces a novel measure, the Infection Ratio (IR), which is not sensitive to underestimation of positive cases and is very effective in monitoring the pandemic's upward or downward evolution when it appears to be more stable, thus anticipating possible risk situations. For a bounded spatial context, we can infer that there is a significant threshold in the restriction of mobility that determines a change of trend in the number of infections that, if maintained for a minimum period, would notably increase the chances of keeping the spread of disease under control. Results show that IR is a reliable indicator of the intensity of infection, and an effective measure for early monitoring and decision making in smart cities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jesus S. Aguilar-Ruiz
- School of Engineering, Pablo de Olavide University, 41013 Seville, Spain; (R.R.); (R.G.)
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10
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Rakover A, Galmiche S, Charmet T, Chény O, Omar F, David C, Martin S, Mailles A, Fontanet A. Source of SARS-CoV-2 infection: results from a series of 584,846 cases in France from October 2020 to August 2022. BMC Public Health 2024; 24:325. [PMID: 38287286 PMCID: PMC10826227 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-17772-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2023] [Accepted: 01/15/2024] [Indexed: 01/31/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND We aimed to study the source of infection for recently SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals from October 2020 to August 2022 in France. METHODS Participants from the nationwide ComCor case-control study who reported recent SARS-CoV-2 infection were asked to document the source and circumstances of their infection through an online questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify the factors associated with not identifying any source of infection. RESULTS Among 584,846 adults with a recent SARS-CoV-2 infection in France, 46.9% identified the source of infection and an additional 22.6% suspected an event during which they might have become infected. Known and suspected sources of infection were household members (30.8%), extended family (15.6%), work colleagues (15.0%), friends (11.0%), and possibly multiple/other sources (27.6%). When the source of infection was known, was not a household member, and involved a unique contact (n = 69,788), characteristics associated with transmission events were indoors settings (91.6%), prolonged (> 15 min) encounters (50.5%), symptomatic source case (64.9%), and neither the source of infection nor the participant wearing a mask (82.2%). Male gender, older age, lower education, living alone, using public transportation, attending places of public recreation (bars, restaurants, nightclubs), public gatherings, and cultural events, and practicing indoor sports were all independently associated with not knowing the source of infection. CONCLUSION Two-thirds of infections were attributed to interactions with close relatives, friends, or work colleagues. Extra-household indoor encounters without masks were commonly reported and represented avoidable circumstances of infection. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT04607941.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arthur Rakover
- Emerging Diseases Epidemiology Unit, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, 25 Rue du Docteur Roux, 75015, Paris, France.
| | - Simon Galmiche
- Emerging Diseases Epidemiology Unit, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, 25 Rue du Docteur Roux, 75015, Paris, France
- Sorbonne Université, Ecole Doctorale Pierre Louis de Santé Publique, Paris, France
| | - Tiffany Charmet
- Emerging Diseases Epidemiology Unit, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, 25 Rue du Docteur Roux, 75015, Paris, France
| | - Olivia Chény
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Centre for Translational Research, Paris, France
| | | | | | - Sophie Martin
- Caisse Nationale de L'Assurance Maladie, Paris, France
| | | | - Arnaud Fontanet
- Emerging Diseases Epidemiology Unit, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, 25 Rue du Docteur Roux, 75015, Paris, France
- Conservatoire National Des Arts Et Métiers, Unité PACRI, Paris, France
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11
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Bhuiyan NH, Shim JS. Immunity testing against COVID-19 from blood by an IoT-enabled and AI-controlled multiplexed microfluidic platform. Biosens Bioelectron 2024; 244:115791. [PMID: 37952323 DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2023.115791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2023] [Revised: 10/17/2023] [Accepted: 10/25/2023] [Indexed: 11/14/2023]
Abstract
Developing herd immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is pivotal for changing the course of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the uncertainty of vaccine-induced immunity development and inequitable distribution of vaccines hinders the global vaccination effort. Therefore, routine serodiagnosis and ensuring effective vaccination on a time-to-time basis are essential for developing sustainable immunity against SARS-CoV-2. Herein, an AI-driven multiplexed point-of-care testing (POCT) platform capable of utilizing a microfluidic lab-on-a-chip (LOC) device has been proposed for analyzing bodily fluid response against SARS-CoV-2. The developed platform has been successfully utilized for the quantification of SARS-CoV-2 S-protein, N-protein, IgM, and IgG from human blood samples with limits of detection (LODs) as low as 0.01, 0.02, 0.69, and 0.61 ng/mL respectively. Finally, a data-receptive web-based dashboard system has been developed and demonstrated to provide real-time, territory-specific analysis of herd immunity progress from the test results. Thus, the proposed platform could be an imperative tool for healthcare authorities to analyze and restrain ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks or similar pandemics in the future by ensuring effective immunization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nabil H Bhuiyan
- Bio-IT Convergence Laboratory, Dept. of Electronic Convergence Engineering, KwangWoon University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Joon S Shim
- Bio-IT Convergence Laboratory, Dept. of Electronic Convergence Engineering, KwangWoon University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
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12
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Mietchen MS, Clancey E, McMichael C, Lofgren ET. Estimating SARS-CoV-2 transmission parameters between coinciding outbreaks in a university population and the surrounding community. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2024:2024.01.10.24301116. [PMID: 38260547 PMCID: PMC10802636 DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.10.24301116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2024]
Abstract
Prior studies suggest that population heterogeneity in SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) transmission plays an important role in epidemic dynamics. During the fall of 2020, many US universities and the surrounding communities experienced an increase in reported incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections, with a high disease burden among students. We explore the transmission dynamics of an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 among university students, how it impacted the non-student population via cross-transmission, and how it could influence pandemic planning and response. Using surveillance data of reported SARS-CoV-2 cases, we developed a two-population SEIR model to estimate transmission parameters and evaluate how these subpopulations interacted during the 2020 Fall semester. We estimated the transmission rate among the university students (βU) and community residents (βC), as well as the rate of cross-transmission between the two subpopulations (βM) using particle Markov Chain Monte Carlo (pMCMC) simulation-based methods. We found that both populations were more likely to interact with others in their population and that cross-transmission was minimal. The cross-transmission estimate (βM) was considerably smaller [0.04 × 10-5 (95% CI: 0.00 × 10-5, 0.15 × 10-5)] compared to the community estimate (βC) at 2.09 × 10-5 (95% CI: 1.12 × 10-5, 2.90 × 10-5) and university estimate (βU) at 27.92 × 10-5 (95% CI: 19.97 × 10-5, 39.15 × 10-5). The higher within population transmission rates among the university and the community (698 and 52 times higher, respectively) when compared to the cross-transmission rate, suggests that these two populations did not transmit between each other heavily, despite their geographic overlap. During the first wave of the pandemic, two distinct epidemics occurred among two subpopulations within a relatively small US county population where university students accounted for roughly 41% of the total population. Transmission parameter estimates varied substantially with minimal or no cross-transmission between the subpopulations. Assumptions that county-level and other small populations are well-mixed during a respiratory viral pandemic should be reconsidered. More granular models reflecting overlapping subpopulations may assist with better-targeted interventions for local public health and healthcare facilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew S Mietchen
- Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
| | - Erin Clancey
- Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
| | | | - Eric T Lofgren
- Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, Washington State University, Pullman, WA
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13
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Zhang L, Zhang Z, Pei S, Gao Q, Chen W. Quantifying the presymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 in the USA. MATHEMATICAL BIOSCIENCES AND ENGINEERING : MBE 2024; 21:861-883. [PMID: 38303446 DOI: 10.3934/mbe.2024036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2024]
Abstract
The emergence of many presymptomatic hidden transmission events significantly complicated the intervention and control of the spread of COVID-19 in the USA during the year 2020. To analyze the role that presymptomatic infections play in the spread of this disease, we developed a state-level metapopulation model to simulate COVID-19 transmission in the USA in 2020 during which period the number of confirmed cases was more than in any other country. We estimated that the transmission rate (i.e., the number of new infections per unit time generated by an infected individual) of presymptomatic infections was approximately 59.9% the transmission rate of reported infections. We further estimated that {at any point in time the} average proportion of infected individuals in the presymptomatic stage was consistently over 50% of all infected individuals. Presymptomatic transmission was consistently contributing over 52% to daily new infections, as well as consistently contributing over 50% to the effective reproduction number from February to December. Finally, non-pharmaceutical intervention targeting presymptomatic infections was very effective in reducing the number of reported cases. These results reveal the significant contribution that presymptomatic transmission made to COVID-19 transmission in the USA during 2020, as well as pave the way for the design of effective disease control and mitigation strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luyu Zhang
- LMIB and School of Mathematical Sciences, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
| | - Zhaohua Zhang
- LMIB and School of Mathematical Sciences, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
| | - Sen Pei
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA
| | - Qing Gao
- School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
- Zhongguancun Laboratory, Beijing 100194, China
| | - Wei Chen
- Zhongguancun Laboratory, Beijing 100194, China
- Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Big Data and Brain Computing, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
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14
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Ward C, Deardon R, Schmidt AM. Bayesian modeling of dynamic behavioral change during an epidemic. Infect Dis Model 2023; 8:947-963. [PMID: 37608881 PMCID: PMC10440573 DOI: 10.1016/j.idm.2023.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Revised: 07/20/2023] [Accepted: 08/03/2023] [Indexed: 08/24/2023] Open
Abstract
For many infectious disease outbreaks, the at-risk population changes their behavior in response to the outbreak severity, causing the transmission dynamics to change in real-time. Behavioral change is often ignored in epidemic modeling efforts, making these models less useful than they could be. We address this by introducing a novel class of data-driven epidemic models which characterize and accurately estimate behavioral change. Our proposed model allows time-varying transmission to be captured by the level of "alarm" in the population, with alarm specified as a function of the past epidemic trajectory. We investigate the estimability of the population alarm across a wide range of scenarios, applying both parametric functions and non-parametric functions using splines and Gaussian processes. The model is set in the data-augmented Bayesian framework to allow estimation on partially observed epidemic data. The benefit and utility of the proposed approach is illustrated through applications to data from real epidemics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caitlin Ward
- Division of Biostatistics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Rob Deardon
- Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Alexandra M. Schmidt
- Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, Montreal, QC, Canada
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15
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Xu C, Zhang Z, Huang X, Cheng K, Guo S, Wang X, Liu M, Liu X. A study on the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 considering the impact of asymptomatic infection. JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL DYNAMICS 2023; 17:2244980. [PMID: 37656780 DOI: 10.1080/17513758.2023.2244980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 08/01/2023] [Indexed: 09/03/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 epidemic has been spreading around the world for nearly three years, and asymptomatic infections have exacerbated the spread of the epidemic. To analyse and evaluate the role of asymptomatic infections in the spread of the epidemic, we establish an improved COVID-19 infectious disease dynamics model. We fit the epidemic data in the four time periods corresponding to the selected 614G, Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants and obtain the proportion of asymptomatic persons among the infected persons gradually increased and with the increase of the detection ratio, the cumulative number of cases has dropped significantly, but the decline in the proportion of asymptomatic infections is not obvious. Therefore, in view of the hidden transmission of asymptomatic infections, the cooperation between various epidemic prevention and control policies is required to effectively curb the spread of the epidemic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chuanqing Xu
- School of Science, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Zonghao Zhang
- School of Science, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiaotong Huang
- School of Science, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Kedeng Cheng
- School of Science, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Songbai Guo
- School of Science, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiaojing Wang
- School of Science, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Maoxing Liu
- School of Science, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiaoling Liu
- Mathematics department, Hanshan Normal University, Chaozhou, People's Republic of China
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16
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Karkanitsa M, Li Y, Valenti S, Spathies J, Kelly S, Hunsberger S, Yee L, Croker JA, Wang J, Alfonso AL, Faust M, Mehalko J, Drew M, Denson JP, Putman Z, Fathi P, Ngo TB, Siripong N, Baus HA, Petersen B, Ford EW, Sundaresan V, Josyula A, Han A, Giurgea LT, Rosas LA, Bean R, Athota R, Czajkowski L, Klumpp-Thomas C, Cervantes-Medina A, Gouzoulis M, Reed S, Graubard B, Hall MD, Kalish H, Esposito D, Kimberly RP, Reis S, Sadtler K, Memoli MJ. Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence in a Large US population Over a Period of 12 Months. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2023:2023.10.20.23297329. [PMID: 37904956 PMCID: PMC10614993 DOI: 10.1101/2023.10.20.23297329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2023]
Abstract
Due to a combination of asymptomatic or undiagnosed infections, the proportion of the United States population infected with SARS-CoV-2 was unclear from the beginning of the pandemic. We previously established a platform to screen for SARS-CoV-2 positivity across a representative proportion of the US population, from which we reported that almost 17 million Americans were estimated to have had undocumented infections in the Spring of 2020. Since then, vaccine rollout and prevalence of different SARS-CoV-2 variants have further altered seropositivity trends within the United States population. To explore the longitudinal impacts of the pandemic and vaccine responses on seropositivity, we re-enrolled participants from our baseline study in a 6- and 12- month follow-up study to develop a longitudinal antibody profile capable of representing seropositivity within the United States during a critical period just prior to and during the initiation of vaccine rollout. Initial measurements showed that, since July 2020, seropositivity elevated within this population from 4.8% at baseline to 36.2% and 89.3% at 6 and 12 months, respectively. We also evaluated nucleocapsid seropositivity and compared to spike seropositivity to identify trends in infection versus vaccination relative to baseline. These data serve as a window into a critical timeframe within the COVID-19 pandemic response and serve as a resource that could be used in subsequent respiratory illness outbreaks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Karkanitsa
- Section on Immunoengineering, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Yan Li
- Joint Program in Survey Methodology, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD 20742
| | - Shannon Valenti
- Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
| | - Jacquelyn Spathies
- Trans-NIH Shared Resource on Biomedical Engineering and Physical Science (BEPS), NIBIB, NIH, Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Sophie Kelly
- Trans-NIH Shared Resource on Biomedical Engineering and Physical Science (BEPS), NIBIB, NIH, Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Sally Hunsberger
- Biostatistics Research Branch, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, Bethesda, MD 20894
| | - Laura Yee
- Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH, MD 20894
| | - Jennifer A. Croker
- Center for Clinical and Translational Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
| | - Jing Wang
- Clinical Monitoring Research Program Directorate, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD 21702
| | - Andrea Lucia Alfonso
- Section on Immunoengineering, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Mondreakest Faust
- Section on Immunoengineering, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Jennifer Mehalko
- Protein Expression Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, 21702
| | - Matthew Drew
- Protein Expression Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, 21702
| | - John-Paul Denson
- Protein Expression Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, 21702
| | - Zoe Putman
- Protein Expression Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, 21702
| | - Parinaz Fathi
- Section on Immunoengineering, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Tran B. Ngo
- Section on Immunoengineering, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Nalyn Siripong
- Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
| | - Holly Ann Baus
- Laboratory of Immunoregulation, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Brian Petersen
- Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
| | - Eric W. Ford
- Department of Health Care Organization, and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
| | - Vanathi Sundaresan
- Section on Immunoengineering, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Aditya Josyula
- Section on Immunoengineering, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Alison Han
- LID Clinical Studies Unit, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20894
| | - Luca T. Giurgea
- LID Clinical Studies Unit, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20894
| | - Luz Angela Rosas
- LID Clinical Studies Unit, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20894
| | - Rachel Bean
- LID Clinical Studies Unit, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20894
| | - Rani Athota
- LID Clinical Studies Unit, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20894
| | - Lindsay Czajkowski
- LID Clinical Studies Unit, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20894
| | - Carleen Klumpp-Thomas
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), NIH, Rockville, MD 20850
| | | | - Monica Gouzoulis
- LID Clinical Studies Unit, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20894
| | - Susan Reed
- LID Clinical Studies Unit, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20894
| | - Barry Graubard
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics, Biostatistics Branch, NCI, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20894
| | - Matthew D. Hall
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), NIH, Rockville, MD 20850
| | - Heather Kalish
- Trans-NIH Shared Resource on Biomedical Engineering and Physical Science (BEPS), NIBIB, NIH, Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Dominic Esposito
- Protein Expression Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, 21702
| | - Robert P. Kimberly
- Center for Clinical and Translational Science, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
| | - Steven Reis
- Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
| | - Kaitlyn Sadtler
- Section on Immunoengineering, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda MD 20894
| | - Matthew J Memoli
- LID Clinical Studies Unit, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20894
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17
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Vallée A. Geoepidemiological perspective on COVID-19 pandemic review, an insight into the global impact. Front Public Health 2023; 11:1242891. [PMID: 37927887 PMCID: PMC10620809 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1242891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 10/02/2023] [Indexed: 11/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic showed major impacts, on societies worldwide, challenging healthcare systems, economies, and daily life of people. Geoepidemiology, an emerging field that combines geography and epidemiology, has played a vital role in understanding and combatting the spread of the virus. This interdisciplinary approach has provided insights into the spatial patterns, risk factors, and transmission dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic at different scales, from local communities to global populations. Spatial patterns have revealed variations in incidence rates, with urban-rural divides and regional hotspots playing significant roles. Cross-border transmission has highlighted the importance of travel restrictions and coordinated public health responses. Risk factors such as age, underlying health conditions, socioeconomic factors, occupation, demographics, and behavior have influenced vulnerability and outcomes. Geoepidemiology has also provided insights into the transmissibility and spread of COVID-19, emphasizing the importance of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, super-spreading events, and the impact of variants. Geoepidemiology should be vital in understanding and responding to evolving new viral challenges of this and future pandemics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandre Vallée
- Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Foch Hospital, Suresnes, France
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18
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Lee J, Acosta N, Waddell BJ, Du K, Xiang K, Van Doorn J, Low K, Bautista MA, McCalder J, Dai X, Lu X, Chekouo T, Pradhan P, Sedaghat N, Papparis C, Buchner Beaudet A, Chen J, Chan L, Vivas L, Westlund P, Bhatnagar S, Stefani S, Visser G, Cabaj J, Bertazzon S, Sarabi S, Achari G, Clark RG, Hrudey SE, Lee BE, Pang X, Webster B, Ghali WA, Buret AG, Williamson T, Southern DA, Meddings J, Frankowski K, Hubert CRJ, Parkins MD. Campus node-based wastewater surveillance enables COVID-19 case localization and confirms lower SARS-CoV-2 burden relative to the surrounding community. WATER RESEARCH 2023; 244:120469. [PMID: 37634459 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2023] [Revised: 08/06/2023] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 08/29/2023]
Abstract
Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) has been established as a powerful tool that can guide health policy at multiple levels of government. However, this approach has not been well assessed at more granular scales, including large work sites such as University campuses. Between August 2021 and April 2022, we explored the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater using qPCR assays from multiple complimentary sewer catchments and residential buildings spanning the University of Calgary's campus and how this compared to levels from the municipal wastewater treatment plant servicing the campus. Real-time contact tracing data was used to evaluate an association between wastewater SARS-CoV-2 burden and clinically confirmed cases and to assess the potential of WBS as a tool for disease monitoring across worksites. Concentrations of wastewater SARS-CoV-2 N1 and N2 RNA varied significantly across six sampling sites - regardless of several normalization strategies - with certain catchments consistently demonstrating values 1-2 orders higher than the others. Relative to clinical cases identified in specific sewersheds, WBS provided one-week leading indicator. Additionally, our comprehensive monitoring strategy enabled an estimation of the total burden of SARS-CoV-2 for the campus per capita, which was significantly lower than the surrounding community (p≤0.001). Allele-specific qPCR assays confirmed that variants across campus were representative of the community at large, and at no time did emerging variants first debut on campus. This study demonstrates how WBS can be efficiently applied to locate hotspots of disease activity at a very granular scale, and predict disease burden across large, complex worksites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jangwoo Lee
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Nicole Acosta
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada
| | - Barbara J Waddell
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada
| | - Kristine Du
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada
| | - Kevin Xiang
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Jennifer Van Doorn
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Kashtin Low
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Maria A Bautista
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Janine McCalder
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Xiaotian Dai
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Xuewen Lu
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Thierry Chekouo
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada; Division of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
| | - Puja Pradhan
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Navid Sedaghat
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Chloe Papparis
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Alexander Buchner Beaudet
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada
| | - Jianwei Chen
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Leslie Chan
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Laura Vivas
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | | | - Srijak Bhatnagar
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada; Faculty of Science and Technology, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Alberta, Canada
| | - September Stefani
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada
| | - Gail Visser
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada
| | - Jason Cabaj
- Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada; Department of Medicine, University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services, Calgary, Canada; Provincial Population & Public Health, Alberta Health Services, Calgary, Canada; O'Brien Institute for Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | | | - Shahrzad Sarabi
- Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Gopal Achari
- Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Rhonda G Clark
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Steve E Hrudey
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Analytical and Environmental Toxicology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Bonita E Lee
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Women & Children's Health Research Institute, Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Xiaoli Pang
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Alberta Precision Laboratories, Public Health Laboratory, Alberta Health Services, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Brendan Webster
- Occupational Health Staff Wellness, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - William Amin Ghali
- Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada; Department of Medicine, University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services, Calgary, Canada; O'Brien Institute for Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada; Centre for Health Informatics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Andre Gerald Buret
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Tyler Williamson
- Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada; O'Brien Institute for Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada; Centre for Health Informatics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Danielle A Southern
- Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada; O'Brien Institute for Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada; Centre for Health Informatics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Jon Meddings
- Department of Medicine, University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services, Calgary, Canada
| | - Kevin Frankowski
- Advancing Canadian Water Assets, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Casey R J Hubert
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Michael D Parkins
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta T2N 2V5, Canada; Department of Medicine, University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services, Calgary, Canada; O'Brien Institute for Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
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19
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Gonzaga A, Andreu E, Hernández-Blasco LM, Meseguer R, Al-Akioui-Sanz K, Soria-Juan B, Sanjuan-Gimenez JC, Ferreras C, Tejedo JR, Lopez-Lluch G, Goterris R, Maciá L, Sempere-Ortells JM, Hmadcha A, Borobia A, Vicario JL, Bonora A, Aguilar-Gallardo C, Poveda JL, Arbona C, Alenda C, Tarín F, Marco FM, Merino E, Jaime F, Ferreres J, Figueira JC, Cañada-Illana C, Querol S, Guerreiro M, Eguizabal C, Martín-Quirós A, Robles-Marhuenda Á, Pérez-Martínez A, Solano C, Soria B. Rationale for combined therapies in severe-to-critical COVID-19 patients. Front Immunol 2023; 14:1232472. [PMID: 37767093 PMCID: PMC10520558 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1232472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Accepted: 08/22/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023] Open
Abstract
An unprecedented global social and economic impact as well as a significant number of fatalities have been brought on by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), produced by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Acute SARS-CoV-2 infection can, in certain situations, cause immunological abnormalities, leading to an anomalous innate and adaptive immune response. While most patients only experience mild symptoms and recover without the need for mechanical ventilation, a substantial percentage of those who are affected develop severe respiratory illness, which can be fatal. The absence of effective therapies when disease progresses to a very severe condition coupled with the incomplete understanding of COVID-19's pathogenesis triggers the need to develop innovative therapeutic approaches for patients at high risk of mortality. As a result, we investigate the potential contribution of promising combinatorial cell therapy to prevent death in critical patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aitor Gonzaga
- Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), Alicante, Spain
- Institute of Bioengineering, Miguel Hernández University, Elche, Spain
| | - Etelvina Andreu
- Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), Alicante, Spain
- Applied Physics Department, Miguel Hernández University, Elche, Spain
| | | | - Rut Meseguer
- Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), Alicante, Spain
- Clinic University Hospital, Fundación para la Investigación del Hospital Clínico de la Comunidad Valenciana (INCLIVA) Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain
| | - Karima Al-Akioui-Sanz
- Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), Alicante, Spain
- Hospital La Paz Institute for Health Research, IdiPAZ, University Hospital La Paz, Madrid, Spain
| | - Bárbara Soria-Juan
- Réseau Hospitalier Neuchâtelois, Hôpital Pourtalès, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | | | - Cristina Ferreras
- Hospital La Paz Institute for Health Research, IdiPAZ, University Hospital La Paz, Madrid, Spain
| | - Juan R. Tejedo
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemical Engineering, University Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain
- Biomedical Research Network for Diabetes and Related Metabolic Diseases-Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabólicas Asociadas (CIBERDEM) of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain
| | - Guillermo Lopez-Lluch
- University Pablo de Olavide, Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CABD-CSIC), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras (CIBERER), Sevilla, Spain
| | - Rosa Goterris
- Clinic University Hospital, Fundación para la Investigación del Hospital Clínico de la Comunidad Valenciana (INCLIVA) Health Research Institute, Valencia, Spain
| | - Loreto Maciá
- Nursing Department, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
| | - Jose M. Sempere-Ortells
- Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), Alicante, Spain
- Biotechnology Department, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
| | - Abdelkrim Hmadcha
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemical Engineering, University Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain
- Biosanitary Research Institute (IIB-VIU), Valencian International University (VIU), Valencia, Spain
| | - Alberto Borobia
- Clinical Pharmacology Department, La Paz University Hospital, School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, IdiPAz, Madrid, Spain
| | - Jose L. Vicario
- Transfusion Center of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ana Bonora
- Health Research Institute Hospital La Fe, Valencia, Spain
| | | | - Jose L. Poveda
- Health Research Institute Hospital La Fe, Valencia, Spain
| | - Cristina Arbona
- Valencian Community Blood Transfusion Center, Valencia, Spain
| | - Cristina Alenda
- Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), Alicante, Spain
| | - Fabian Tarín
- Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), Alicante, Spain
| | - Francisco M. Marco
- Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), Alicante, Spain
- Immunology Department, Dr. Balmis General University Hospital, Alicante, Spain
| | - Esperanza Merino
- Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), Alicante, Spain
- Department of Clinical Medicine, Miguel Hernández University, Elche, Spain
- Infectious Diseases Unit, Dr. Balmis General University Hospital, Alicante, Spain
| | - Francisco Jaime
- Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), Alicante, Spain
| | - José Ferreres
- Intensive Care Service, Hospital Clinico Universitario, Fundación para la Investigación del Hospital Clínico de la Comunidad Valenciana (INCLIVA), Valencia, Spain
| | | | | | | | - Manuel Guerreiro
- Department of Hematology, Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia, Spain
| | - Cristina Eguizabal
- Research Unit, Basque Center for Blood Transfusion and Human Tissues, Galdakao, Spain
- Cell Therapy, Stem Cells and Tissues Group, Biocruces Bizkaia Health Research Institute, Barakaldo, Spain
| | | | | | - Antonio Pérez-Martínez
- Hospital La Paz Institute for Health Research, IdiPAZ, University Hospital La Paz, Madrid, Spain
- Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Carlos Solano
- Hematology Service, Hospital Clínico Universitario, Fundación para la Investigación del Hospital Clínico de la Comunidad Valenciana (INCLIVA), Valencia, Spain
| | - Bernat Soria
- Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), Alicante, Spain
- Institute of Bioengineering, Miguel Hernández University, Elche, Spain
- Biomedical Research Network for Diabetes and Related Metabolic Diseases-Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabólicas Asociadas (CIBERDEM) of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), Madrid, Spain
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20
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Ojha D, Jessop F, Bosio CM, Peterson KE. Effective inhibition of HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 by phytochemicals in vitro and in vivo. Int J Antimicrob Agents 2023; 62:106893. [PMID: 37339711 PMCID: PMC10277159 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2023.106893] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2022] [Revised: 05/26/2023] [Accepted: 06/14/2023] [Indexed: 06/22/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Several coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43), can cause respiratory infections in humans. To address the need for reliable anti-coronavirus therapeutics, we screened 16 active phytochemicals selected from medicinal plants used in traditional applications for respiratory-related illnesses. METHODS An initial screen was completed using HCoV-OC43 to identify compounds that inhibit virus-induced cytopathic effect (CPE) and cell death inhibition. Then the top hits were validated in vitro against both HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 by determining virus titer in cell supernatant and virus-induced cell death. Finally, the most active phytochemical was validated in vivo in the SARS-CoV-2-infected B6.Cg-Tg(K18-ACE2)2Prlmn/J mouse model. RESULTS The phytochemicals lycorine (LYC), capsaicin, rottlerin (RTL), piperine and chebulinic acid (CHU) inhibited HCoV-OC43-induced cytopathic effect and reduced viral titres by up to 4 log. LYC, RTL and CHU also suppressed virus replication and cell death following SARS-CoV-2 infection. In vivo, RTL significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2-induced mortality by ∼40% in human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2)-expressing K18 mice. CONCLUSION Collectively, these studies indicate that RTL and other phytochemicals have therapeutic potential to reduce SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV-OC43 infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Durbadal Ojha
- Neuroimmunology Section, Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, 903 S. 4th St., Hamilton, MT, USA.
| | - Forrest Jessop
- Immunity to Pulmonary Pathogens Section, Laboratory of Bacteriology, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, 903 S. 4th St., Hamilton, MT, USA
| | - Catharine M Bosio
- Immunity to Pulmonary Pathogens Section, Laboratory of Bacteriology, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, 903 S. 4th St., Hamilton, MT, USA
| | - Karin E Peterson
- Neuroimmunology Section, Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, 903 S. 4th St., Hamilton, MT, USA.
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21
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Ziarelli G, Dede' L, Parolini N, Verani M, Quarteroni A. Optimized numerical solutions of SIRDVW multiage model controlling SARS-CoV-2 vaccine roll out: An application to the Italian scenario. Infect Dis Model 2023; 8:672-703. [PMID: 37346476 PMCID: PMC10240908 DOI: 10.1016/j.idm.2023.05.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2022] [Revised: 05/15/2023] [Accepted: 05/29/2023] [Indexed: 06/23/2023] Open
Abstract
In the context of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, mathematical modelling has played a fundamental role for making forecasts, simulating scenarios and evaluating the impact of preventive political, social and pharmaceutical measures. Optimal control theory represents a useful mathematical tool to plan the vaccination campaign aimed at eradicating the pandemic as fast as possible. The aim of this work is to explore the optimal prioritisation order for planning vaccination campaigns able to achieve specific goals, as the reduction of the amount of infected, deceased and hospitalized in a given time frame, among age classes. For this purpose, we introduce an age stratified SIR-like epidemic compartmental model settled in an abstract framework for modelling two-doses vaccination campaigns and conceived with the description of COVID19 disease. Compared to other recent works, our model incorporates all stages of the COVID-19 disease, including death or recovery, without accounting for additional specific compartments that would increase computational complexity and that are not relevant for our purposes. Moreover, we introduce an optimal control framework where the model is the state problem while the vaccine doses administered are the control variables. An extensive campaign of numerical tests, featured in the Italian scenario and calibrated on available data from Dipartimento di Protezione Civile Italiana, proves that the presented framework can be a valuable tool to support the planning of vaccination campaigns. Indeed, in each considered scenario, our optimization framework guarantees noticeable improvements in terms of reducing deceased, infected or hospitalized individuals with respect to the baseline vaccination policy.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Luca Dede'
- MOX, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Nicola Parolini
- MOX, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Marco Verani
- MOX, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Alfio Quarteroni
- MOX, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
- Institute of Mathematics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
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22
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Case BKM, Young JG, Hébert-Dufresne L. Accurately summarizing an outbreak using epidemiological models takes time. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 10:230634. [PMID: 37771961 PMCID: PMC10523082 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2023] [Accepted: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 09/30/2023]
Abstract
Recent outbreaks of Mpox and Ebola, and worrying waves of COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, have all led to a sharp increase in the use of epidemiological models to estimate key epidemiological parameters. The feasibility of this estimation task is known as the practical identifiability (PI) problem. Here, we investigate the PI of eight commonly reported statistics of the classic susceptible-infectious-recovered model using a new measure that shows how much a researcher can expect to learn in a model-based Bayesian analysis of prevalence data. Our findings show that the basic reproductive number and final outbreak size are often poorly identified, with learning exceeding that of individual model parameters only in the early stages of an outbreak. The peak intensity, peak timing and initial growth rate are better identified, being in expectation over 20 times more probable having seen the data by the time the underlying outbreak peaks. We then test PI for a variety of true parameter combinations and find that PI is especially problematic in slow-growing or less-severe outbreaks. These results add to the growing body of literature questioning the reliability of inferences from epidemiological models when limited data are available.
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Affiliation(s)
- B. K. M. Case
- Vermont Complex Systems Center, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
- Department of Computer Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
| | - Jean-Gabriel Young
- Vermont Complex Systems Center, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
- Department of Computer Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
| | - Laurent Hébert-Dufresne
- Vermont Complex Systems Center, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
- Department of Computer Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
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23
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Montesinos-López JC, Daza-Torres ML, García YE, Herrera C, Bess CW, Bischel HN, Nuño M. Bayesian sequential approach to monitor COVID-19 variants through test positivity rate from wastewater. mSystems 2023; 8:e0001823. [PMID: 37489897 PMCID: PMC10469603 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00018-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2023] [Accepted: 05/01/2023] [Indexed: 07/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Deployment of clinical testing on a massive scale was an essential control measure for curtailing the burden of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections and the magnitude of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic during its waves. As the pandemic progressed, new preventive and surveillance mechanisms emerged. Implementation of vaccine programs, wastewater (WW) surveillance, and at-home COVID-19 antigen tests reduced the demand for mass SARS-CoV-2 testing. Unfortunately, reductions in testing and test reporting rates also reduced the availability of public health data to support decision-making. This paper proposes a sequential Bayesian approach to estimate the COVID-19 test positivity rate (TPR) using SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations measured in WW through an adaptive scheme incorporating changes in virus dynamics. The proposed modeling framework was applied to WW surveillance data from two WW treatment plants in California; the City of Davis and the University of California, Davis campus. TPR estimates are used to compute thresholds for WW data using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thresholds for low (<5% TPR), moderate (5%-8% TPR), substantial (8%-10% TPR), and high (>10% TPR) transmission. The effective reproductive number estimates are calculated using TPR estimates from the WW data. This approach provides insights into the dynamics of the virus evolution and an analytical framework that combines different data sources to continue monitoring COVID-19 trends. These results can provide public health guidance to reduce the burden of future outbreaks as new variants continue to emerge. IMPORTANCE We propose a statistical model to correlate WW with TPR to monitor COVID-19 trends and to help overcome the limitations of relying only on clinical case detection. We pose an adaptive scheme to model the nonautonomous nature of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The TPR is modeled through a Bayesian sequential approach with a beta regression model using SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations measured in WW as a covariable. The resulting model allows us to compute TPR based on WW measurements and incorporates changes in viral transmission dynamics through an adaptive scheme.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Maria L. Daza-Torres
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA
| | - Yury E. García
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA
| | - César Herrera
- Department of Mathematics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
| | - C. Winston Bess
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA
| | - Heather N. Bischel
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA
| | - Miriam Nuño
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA
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24
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Marmor Y, Abbey A, Shahar Y, Mokryn O. Assessing individual risk and the latent transmission of COVID-19 in a population with an interaction-driven temporal model. Sci Rep 2023; 13:12955. [PMID: 37563358 PMCID: PMC10415258 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-39817-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2022] [Accepted: 07/31/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Interaction-driven modeling of diseases over real-world contact data has been shown to promote the understanding of the spread of diseases in communities. This temporal modeling follows the path-preserving order and timing of the contacts, which are essential for accurate modeling. Yet, other important aspects were overlooked. Various airborne pathogens differ in the duration of exposure needed for infection. Also, from the individual perspective, Covid-19 progression differs between individuals, and its severity is statistically correlated with age. Here, we enrich an interaction-driven model of Covid-19 and similar airborne viral diseases with (a) meetings duration and (b) personal disease progression. The enriched model enables predicting outcomes at both the population and the individual levels. It further allows predicting individual risk of engaging in social interactions as a function of the virus characteristics and its prevalence in the population. We further showed that the enigmatic nature of asymptomatic transmission stems from the latent effect of the network density on this transmission and that asymptomatic transmission has a substantial impact only in sparse communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanir Marmor
- Information Systems, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Alex Abbey
- Information Systems, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Yuval Shahar
- Software and Information Systems Engineering, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel
| | - Osnat Mokryn
- Information Systems, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
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25
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Larsen SL, Shin I, Joseph J, West H, Anorga R, Mena GE, Mahmud AS, Martinez PP. Quantifying the impact of SARS-CoV-2 temporal vaccination trends and disparities on disease control. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadh9920. [PMID: 37531439 PMCID: PMC10396293 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh9920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 06/30/2023] [Indexed: 08/04/2023]
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have been distributed at unprecedented speed. Still, little is known about temporal vaccination trends, their association with socioeconomic inequality, and their consequences for disease control. Using data from 161 countries/territories and 58 states, we examined vaccination rates across high and low socioeconomic status (SES), showing that disparities in coverage exist at national and subnational levels. We also identified two distinct vaccination trends: a rapid initial rollout, quickly reaching a plateau, or sigmoidal and slow to begin. Informed by these patterns, we implemented an SES-stratified mechanistic model, finding profound differences in mortality and incidence across these two vaccination types. Timing of initial rollout affects disease outcomes more substantially than final coverage or degree of SES disparity. Unexpectedly, timing is not associated with wealth inequality or GDP per capita. While socioeconomic disparity should be addressed, accelerating initial rollout for all over focusing on increasing coverage is an accessible intervention that could minimize the burden of disease across socioeconomic groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie L. Larsen
- Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Ikgyu Shin
- Department of Statistics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Jefrin Joseph
- Department of Microbiology, School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Haylee West
- Department of Microbiology, School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - Rafael Anorga
- Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | | | - Ayesha S. Mahmud
- Department of Demography, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Pamela P. Martinez
- Department of Statistics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- Department of Microbiology, School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
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26
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Yang Y, Guo L, Yuan J, Xu Z, Gu Y, Zhang J, Guan Y, Liang J, Lu H, Liu Y. Viral and antibody dynamics of acute infection with SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant (B.1.1.529): a prospective cohort study from Shenzhen, China. THE LANCET. MICROBE 2023; 4:e632-e641. [PMID: 37459867 DOI: 10.1016/s2666-5247(23)00139-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Revised: 11/21/2022] [Accepted: 04/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/06/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Elucidating viral dynamics within the host is important for designing public health measures against SARS-CoV-2, particularly during the early stages of infection when transmission potential rapidly increases. We aimed to analyse the viral and antibody dynamics of the omicron variant in relation to symptom onset or laboratory confirmation and replication dynamics throughout the infection course. METHODS In this prospective cohort study, patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who were admitted to Shenzhen Third People's Hospital (Shenzhen, China) between Jan 11, 2020, and April 24, 2022, were screened for eligibility. We included immunocompetent individuals with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection without antiviral agents targeting SARS-CoV-2. Serial nasopharyngeal swabs and plasma samples were analysed for viral RNAs and specific IgG antibodies of SARS-CoV-2. The comparative viral and antibody kinetics in association with symptom onset or laboratory confirmation and replication dynamics throughout the infection course were calculated by the locally estimated scatterplot smoothing curve fitting polynomial regression. The associations between viral and antibody dynamics and vaccination, age, sex, disease severity, and underlying health conditions were analysed using the Mann-Whitney U test and the Gehan-Breslow-Wilcoxon method. FINDINGS 15 406 serial nasopharyngeal swabs and 2324 plasma samples were taken from 2043 individuals with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection (n=217 prototype [A.1] and D614G [B.1] variant [wild-type]; n=105 delta variant [B.1.617.2]; n=1721 omicron variant [B.1.1.529]) and were included for the analyses. The mean Ct value of omicron variant on the first day post symptom onset (dpo; defined as the first day post laboratory confirmation in asymptomatic participants) was 22·65 (95% CI 22·05-23·26). Peak viral load was reached with a mean Ct value of 17·63 (17·47-17·79) at a mean of 3·19 dpo (95% CI 3·09-3·28), and viral clearance (Ct values ≥35) was reached at a mean of 13·50 dpo (95% CI 13·32-13·67). Omicron variant showed faster viral replication and clearance than wild-type SARS-CoV-2 and delta variant, and the viral load at the first dpo and the peak viral load was lower than delta variant but higher than wild-type SARS-CoV-2. Age, sex, disease severity, and underlying health conditions were associated with the viral dynamics of omicron variant, with faster viral clearance found in young (aged 0-14 years), male, and asymptomatic participants, and those without underlying health conditions. Replication dynamics thoughout the infection course showed that peak viral load was reached at a mean of 5·06 dpo (4·76-5·36) and viral clearance took a mean of 14·27 days (13·6-14·93) for omicron variant. SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG increased earlier and faster to significantly higher concentrations in breakthrough infection than naive infection with omicron variant, despite long intervals (≥7 months) between the last dose of vaccination and infection. INTERPRETATION Our data provide a comprehensive overview of the longitudinal viral and antibody dynamics of omicron variant in people with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, with important implications for public health strategies, including population screening, antiviral treatment, isolation periods, and vaccination. FUNDING National Natural Science Foundation of China and Emergency Key Program of Guangzhou Laboratory. TRANSLATION For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yang Yang
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Immunity, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease, State Key Discipline of Infectious Disease, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Second Hospital Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
| | - Liping Guo
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Immunity, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease, State Key Discipline of Infectious Disease, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Second Hospital Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jing Yuan
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Immunity, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease, State Key Discipline of Infectious Disease, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Second Hospital Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
| | - Zhixiang Xu
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Immunity, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease, State Key Discipline of Infectious Disease, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Second Hospital Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
| | - Yuchen Gu
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Immunity, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease, State Key Discipline of Infectious Disease, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Second Hospital Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jiaqi Zhang
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Immunity, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease, State Key Discipline of Infectious Disease, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Second Hospital Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
| | - Yuan Guan
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Immunity, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease, State Key Discipline of Infectious Disease, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Second Hospital Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jinhu Liang
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Immunity, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease, State Key Discipline of Infectious Disease, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Second Hospital Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
| | - Hongzhou Lu
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Immunity, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease, State Key Discipline of Infectious Disease, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Second Hospital Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.
| | - Yingxia Liu
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Immunity, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease, State Key Discipline of Infectious Disease, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Second Hospital Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.
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27
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Dabke DV, Karntikoon K, Aluru C, Singh M, Chazelle B. Network-augmented compartmental models to track asymptomatic disease spread. BIOINFORMATICS ADVANCES 2023; 3:vbad082. [PMID: 37476534 PMCID: PMC10354004 DOI: 10.1093/bioadv/vbad082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2023] [Revised: 06/20/2023] [Accepted: 07/01/2023] [Indexed: 07/22/2023]
Abstract
Summary A major challenge in understanding the spread of certain newly emerging viruses is the presence of asymptomatic cases. Their prevalence is hard to measure in the absence of testing tools, and yet the information is critical for tracking disease spread and shaping public health policies. Here, we introduce a framework that combines classic compartmental models with travel networks and we use it to estimate asymptomatic rates. Our platform, traSIR ("tracer"), is an augmented susceptible-infectious-recovered (SIR) model that incorporates multiple locations and the flow of people between them; it has a compartment model for each location and estimates of commuting traffic between compartments. TraSIR models both asymptomatic and symptomatic infections, as well as the dampening effect symptomatic infections have on traffic between locations. We derive analytical formulae to express the asymptomatic rate as a function of other key model parameters. Next, we use simulations to show that empirical data fitting yields excellent agreement with actual asymptomatic rates using only information about the number of symptomatic infections over time and compartments. Finally, we apply our model to COVID-19 data consisting of reported daily infections in the New York metropolitan area and estimate asymptomatic rates of COVID-19 to be ∼34%, which is within the 30-40% interval derived from widespread testing. Overall, our work demonstrates that traSIR is a powerful approach to express viral propagation dynamics over geographical networks and estimate key parameters relevant to virus transmission. Availability and implementation No public repository.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Chaitanya Aluru
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Mona Singh
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
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28
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A simulation of undiagnosed population and excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS IN CONTROL AND OPTIMIZATION 2023; 12:100262. [PMCID: PMC10290741 DOI: 10.1016/j.rico.2023.100262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Revised: 06/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/21/2024]
Abstract
Whereas the extent of outbreak of COVID-19 is usually accessed via the number of reported cases and the number of patients succumbed to the disease, the officially recorded overall excess mortality numbers during the pandemic waves, which are significant and often followed the rise and fall of the pandemic waves, put a question mark on the above methodology. Gradually it has been recognized that estimating the size of the undiagnosed population (which includes asymptomatic cases and symptomatic cases but not reported) is also crucial. Here we used the classical mathematical SEIR model having an additional compartment, that is the undiagnosed group in addition to the susceptible, exposed, diagnosed, recovered and deceased groups, to link the undiagnosed COVID-19 cases to the reported excess mortality numbers and thereby try to know the actual size of the disease outbreak. The developed model wase successfully applied to relevant COVID-19 waves in USA (initial months of 2020), South Africa (mid of 2021) and Russia (2020–21) when a large discrepancy between the reported COVID-19 mortality and the overall excess mortality had been noticed.
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29
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Gao S, Binod P, Chukwu CW, Kwofie T, Safdar S, Newman L, Choe S, Datta BK, Attipoe WK, Zhang W, van den Driessche P. A mathematical model to assess the impact of testing and isolation compliance on the transmission of COVID-19. Infect Dis Model 2023; 8:427-444. [PMID: 37113557 PMCID: PMC10116127 DOI: 10.1016/j.idm.2023.04.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2022] [Revised: 04/07/2023] [Accepted: 04/10/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged global health and national economies worldwide. Testing and isolation are effective control strategies to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19, especially in the early stage of the disease outbreak. In this paper, we develop a deterministic model to investigate the impact of testing and compliance with isolation on the transmission of COVID-19. We derive the control reproduction number R C , which gives the threshold for disease elimination or prevalence. Using data from New York State in the early stage of the disease outbreak, we estimate R C = 7.989 . Both elasticity and sensitivity analyses show that testing and compliance with isolation are significant in reducing R C and disease prevalence. Simulation reveals that only high testing volume combined with a large proportion of individuals complying with isolation have great impact on mitigating the transmission. The testing starting date is also crucial: the earlier testing is implemented, the more impact it has on reducing the infection. The results obtained here would also be helpful in developing guidelines of early control strategies for pandemics similar to COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shasha Gao
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330000, Jiangxi, China
- Department of Mathematics, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611, FL, USA
| | - Pant Binod
- Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park, 20742, MD, USA
| | | | - Theophilus Kwofie
- School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287, AZ, USA
| | - Salman Safdar
- School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287, AZ, USA
| | - Lora Newman
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 45221, OH, USA
| | - Seoyun Choe
- Department of Mathematics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, 32816, FL, USA
| | - Bimal Kumar Datta
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, 33431, FL, USA
| | | | - Wenjing Zhang
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, 79409, TX, USA
| | - P van den Driessche
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Victoria, Victoria, V8W 2Y2, B.C, Canada
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30
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Dobson A, Ricci C, Boucekkine R, Gozzi F, Fabbri G, Loch-Temzelides T, Pascual M. Balancing economic and epidemiological interventions in the early stages of pathogen emergence. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eade6169. [PMID: 37224240 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade6169] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2022] [Accepted: 04/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
The global pandemic of COVID-19 has underlined the need for more coordinated responses to emergent pathogens. These responses need to balance epidemic control in ways that concomitantly minimize hospitalizations and economic damages. We develop a hybrid economic-epidemiological modeling framework that allows us to examine the interaction between economic and health impacts over the first period of pathogen emergence when lockdown, testing, and isolation are the only means of containing the epidemic. This operational mathematical setting allows us to determine the optimal policy interventions under a variety of scenarios that might prevail in the first period of a large-scale epidemic outbreak. Combining testing with isolation emerges as a more effective policy than lockdowns, substantially reducing deaths and the number of infected hosts, at lower economic cost. If a lockdown is put in place early in the course of the epidemic, it always dominates the "laissez-faire" policy of doing nothing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andy Dobson
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Panama
| | - Cristiano Ricci
- Department of Economics and Management, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Raouf Boucekkine
- Centre for Unframed Thinking, Rennes School of Business, 35000 Rennes, France
| | - Fausto Gozzi
- Department of Economics and Finance, Luiss University, Roma, Italy
| | - Giorgio Fabbri
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, INRAE, Grenoble INP, GAEL, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Ted Loch-Temzelides
- Department of Economics and Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | - Mercedes Pascual
- Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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31
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Bai F. An age-of-infection model with both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections. J Math Biol 2023; 86:82. [PMID: 37154967 PMCID: PMC10129303 DOI: 10.1007/s00285-023-01920-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2022] [Revised: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
We formulate a general age-of-infection epidemic model with two pathways: the symptomatic infections and the asymptomatic infections. We then calculate the basic reproduction number [Formula: see text] and establish the final size relation. It is shown that the ratio of accumulated counts of symptomatic patients and asymptomatic patients is determined by the symptomatic ratio f which is defined as the probability of eventually becoming symptomatic after being infected. We also formulate and study a general age-of-infection model with disease deaths and with two infection pathways. The final size relation is investigated, and the upper and lower bounds for final epidemic size are given. Several numerical simulations are performed to verify the analytical results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fan Bai
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University - Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China.
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Research and Application for Data Science, BNU-HKBU United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China.
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32
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Luebben G, González-Parra G, Cervantes B. Study of optimal vaccination strategies for early COVID-19 pandemic using an age-structured mathematical model: A case study of the USA. MATHEMATICAL BIOSCIENCES AND ENGINEERING : MBE 2023; 20:10828-10865. [PMID: 37322963 PMCID: PMC11216547 DOI: 10.3934/mbe.2023481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
In this paper we study different vaccination strategies that could have been implemented for the early COVID-19 pandemic. We use a demographic epidemiological mathematical model based on differential equations in order to investigate the efficacy of a variety of vaccination strategies under limited vaccine supply. We use the number of deaths as the metric to measure the efficacy of each of these strategies. Finding the optimal strategy for the vaccination programs is a complex problem due to the large number of variables that affect the outcomes. The constructed mathematical model takes into account demographic risk factors such as age, comorbidity status and social contacts of the population. We perform simulations to assess the performance of more than three million vaccination strategies which vary depending on the vaccine priority of each group. This study focuses on the scenario corresponding to the early vaccination period in the USA, but can be extended to other countries. The results of this study show the importance of designing an optimal vaccination strategy in order to save human lives. The problem is extremely complex due to the large amount of factors, high dimensionality and nonlinearities. We found that for low/moderate transmission rates the optimal strategy prioritizes high transmission groups, but for high transmission rates, the optimal strategy focuses on groups with high CFRs. The results provide valuable information for the design of optimal vaccination programs. Moreover, the results help to design scientific vaccination guidelines for future pandemics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Luebben
- Department of Mathematics, New Mexico Tech, New Mexico, 87801, USA
| | | | - Bishop Cervantes
- Department of Mathematics, New Mexico Tech, New Mexico, 87801, USA
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33
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Tunc H, Sari M, Kotil SE. Effect of sojourn time distributions on the early dynamics of COVID-19 outbreak. NONLINEAR DYNAMICS 2023; 111:11685-11702. [PMID: 37168840 PMCID: PMC10115393 DOI: 10.1007/s11071-023-08400-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2022] [Accepted: 03/02/2023] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
Compartmental models are commonly used in practice to investigate the dynamical response of infectious diseases such as the COVID-19 outbreak. Such models generally assume exponentially distributed latency and infectiousness periods. However, the exponential distribution assumption fails when the sojourn times are expected to distribute around their means. This study aims to derive a novel S (Susceptible)-E (Exposed)-P (Presymptomatic)-A (Asymptomatic)-D (Symptomatic)-C (Reported) model with arbitrarily distributed latency, presymptomatic infectiousness, asymptomatic infectiousness, and symptomatic infectiousness periods. The SEPADC model is represented by nonlinear Volterra integral equations that generalize ordinary differential equation-based models. Our primary aim is the derivation of a general relation between intrinsic growth rate r and basic reproduction number R 0 with the help of the well-known Lotka-Euler equation. The resulting r - R 0 equation includes separate roles of various stages of the infection and their sojourn time distributions. We show that R 0 estimates are considerably affected by the choice of the sojourn time distributions for relatively higher values of r. The well-known exponential distribution assumption has led to the underestimation of R 0 values for most of the countries. Exponential and delta-distributed sojourn times have been shown to yield lower and upper bounds of the R 0 values depending on the r values. In quantitative experiments, R 0 values of 152 countries around the world were estimated through our novel formulae utilizing the parameter values and sojourn time distributions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The global convergence, R 0 = 4.58 , has been estimated through our novel formulation. Additionally, we have shown that increasing the shape parameter of the Erlang distributed sojourn times increases the skewness of the epidemic curves in entire dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huseyin Tunc
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, School of Medicine, Bahcesehir University, 34000 Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Murat Sari
- Department of Mathematical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Letters, Istanbul Technical University, 34469 Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Seyfullah Enes Kotil
- Department of Biophysics, School of Medicine, Bahcesehir University, 34000 Istanbul, Turkey
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Bogazici University, 34000 Istanbul, Turkey
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34
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Lee D, Ozkaya-Ahmadov T, Sarioglu AF. Chemically Amplified Multiplex Detection of SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza A and B Viruses via Paint-Programmed Lateral Flow Assays. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2023:e2208035. [PMID: 37010045 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202208035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2022] [Revised: 02/14/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to threaten lives by evolving into new variants with greater transmissibility. Although lateral flow assays (LFAs) are widely used to self-test for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), these tests suffer from low sensitivity leading to a high rate of false negative results. In this work, a multiplexed lateral flow assay is reported for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A and B viruses in human saliva with a built-in chemical amplification of the colorimetric signal for enhanced sensitivity. To automate the amplification process, the paper-based device is integrated with an imprinted flow controller, which coordinates the routing of different reagents and ensures their sequential and timely delivery to run an optimal amplification reaction. Using the assay, SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A and B viruses can be detected with ≈25x higher sensitivity than commercial LFAs, and the device can detect SARS-CoV-2-positive patient saliva samples missed by commercial LFAs. The technology provides an effective and practical solution to enhance the performance of conventional LFAs and will enable sensitive self-testing to prevent virus transmission and future outbreaks of new variants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dohwan Lee
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
| | - Tevhide Ozkaya-Ahmadov
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
| | - A Fatih Sarioglu
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
- Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
- Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
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35
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Odagaki T. New compartment model for COVID-19. Sci Rep 2023; 13:5409. [PMID: 37012332 PMCID: PMC10068699 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-32159-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2022] [Accepted: 03/23/2023] [Indexed: 04/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The SIR or susceptible-infected-recovered model is the standard compartment model for understanding epidemics and has been used all over the world for COVID-19. While the SIR model assumes that infected patients are identical to symptomatic and infectious patients, it is now known that in COVID-19 pre-symptomatic patients are infectious and there are significant number of asymptomatic patients who are infectious. In this paper, population is separated into five compartments for COVID-19; susceptible individuals (S), pre-symptomatic patients (P), asymptomatic patients (A), quarantined patients (Q) and recovered and/or dead patients (R). The time evolution of population in each compartment is described by a set of ordinary differential equations. Numerical solution to the set of differential equations shows that quarantining pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic patients is effective in controlling the pandemic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takashi Odagaki
- Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan.
- Research Institute for Science Education, Inc., Kyoto, 603-8346, Japan.
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36
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Baldwin WM, Dayton RD, Bivins AW, Scott RS, Yurochko AD, Vanchiere JA, Davis T, Arnold CL, Asuncion JET, Bhuiyan MAN, Snead B, Daniel W, Smith DG, Goeders NE, Kevil CG, Carroll J, Murnane KS. Highly socially vulnerable communities exhibit disproportionately increased viral loads as measured in community wastewater. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2023; 222:115351. [PMID: 36709030 PMCID: PMC9877155 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2022] [Revised: 01/12/2023] [Accepted: 01/22/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Wastewater surveillance has proven to be a useful tool for evidence-based epidemiology in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It is particularly useful at the population level where acquisition of individual test samples may be time or cost-prohibitive. Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 has typically been performed at wastewater treatment plants; however, this study was designed to sample on a local level to monitor the spread of the virus among three communities with distinct social vulnerability indices in Shreveport, Louisiana, located in a socially vulnerable region of the United States. Twice-monthly grab samples were collected from September 30, 2020, to March 23, 2021, during the Beta wave of the pandemic. The goals of the study were to examine whether: 1) concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater varied with social vulnerability indices and, 2) the time lag of spikes differed during wastewater monitoring in the distinct communities. The size of the population contributing to each sample was assessed via the quantification of the pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV), which was significantly higher in the less socially vulnerable community. We found that the communities with higher social vulnerability exhibited greater viral loads as assessed by wastewater when normalized with PMMoV (Kruskal-Wallis, p < 0.05). The timing of the spread of the virus through the three communities appeared to be similar. These results suggest that interconnected communities within a municipality experienced the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at similar times, but areas of high social vulnerability experienced more intense wastewater viral loads.
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Affiliation(s)
- William M Baldwin
- Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology & Neuroscience, School of Graduate Studies, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Louisiana Addiction Research Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Robert D Dayton
- Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology & Neuroscience, School of Graduate Studies, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Louisiana Addiction Research Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Aaron W Bivins
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
| | - Rona S Scott
- Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Andrew D Yurochko
- Louisiana Addiction Research Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Division of Health Disparities, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - John A Vanchiere
- Louisiana Addiction Research Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Terry Davis
- Louisiana Addiction Research Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Division of Health Disparities, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Connie L Arnold
- Louisiana Addiction Research Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Division of Health Disparities, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Jose E T Asuncion
- Department of Public Health, School of Allied Health Professions, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Mohammad A N Bhuiyan
- Louisiana Addiction Research Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Division of Clinical Informatics, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Brandon Snead
- Department of Water and Sewage, City of Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - William Daniel
- Department of Water and Sewage, City of Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Deborah G Smith
- Louisiana Addiction Research Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Department of Public Health, School of Allied Health Professions, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Nicholas E Goeders
- Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology & Neuroscience, School of Graduate Studies, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Louisiana Addiction Research Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine, School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Christopher G Kevil
- Louisiana Addiction Research Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, School of Graduate Studies, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, School of Graduate Studies, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Jennifer Carroll
- Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA
| | - Kevin S Murnane
- Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology & Neuroscience, School of Graduate Studies, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Louisiana Addiction Research Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine, School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, School of Graduate Studies, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.
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37
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Park SW, Dushoff J, Grenfell BT, Weitz JS. Intermediate levels of asymptomatic transmission can lead to the highest epidemic fatalities. PNAS NEXUS 2023; 2:pgad106. [PMID: 37091542 PMCID: PMC10118396 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2022] [Revised: 12/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/13/2023] [Indexed: 04/25/2023]
Abstract
Asymptomatic infections have hampered the ability to characterize and prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 throughout the pandemic. Although asymptomatic infections reduce severity at the individual level, they can make population-level outcomes worse if asymptomatic individuals-unaware they are infected-transmit more than symptomatic individuals. Using an epidemic model, we show that intermediate levels of asymptomatic infection lead to the highest levels of epidemic fatalities when the decrease in symptomatic transmission, due either to individual behavior or mitigation efforts, is strong. We generalize this result to include presymptomatic transmission, showing that intermediate levels of nonsymptomatic transmission lead to the highest levels of fatalities. Finally, we extend our framework to illustrate how the intersection of asymptomatic spread and immunity profiles determine epidemic trajectories, including population-level severity, of future variants. In particular, when immunity provides protection against symptoms, but not against infections or deaths, epidemic trajectories can have faster growth rates and higher peaks, leading to more total deaths. Conversely, even modest levels of protection against infection can mitigate the population-level effects of asymptomatic spread.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sang Woo Park
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Jonathan Dushoff
- Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
- M. G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
| | - Bryan T Grenfell
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
- Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
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38
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Jang HJ, Zhuang W, Sui X, Ryu B, Huang X, Chen M, Cai X, Pu H, Beavis K, Huang J, Chen J. Rapid, Sensitive, Label-Free Electrical Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Nasal Swab Samples. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2023; 15:15195-15202. [PMID: 36938607 PMCID: PMC10041344 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c00331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Rapid diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is key for the long-term control of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) amid renewed threats of mutated SARS-CoV-2 around the world. Here, we report on an electrical label-free detection of SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal swab samples directly collected from outpatients or in saliva-relevant conditions by using a remote floating-gate field-effect transistor (RFGFET) with a 2-dimensional reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sensing membrane. RFGFET sensors demonstrate rapid detection (<5 min), a 90.6% accuracy from 8 nasal swab samples measured by 4 different devices for each sample, and a coefficient of variation (CV) < 6%. Also, RFGFET sensors display a limit of detection (LOD) of pseudo-SARS-CoV-2 that is 10 000-fold lower than enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, with a comparable LOD to that of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for patient samples. To achieve this, comprehensive systematic studies were performed regarding interactions between SARS-CoV-2 and spike proteins, neutralizing antibodies, and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, as either a biomarker (detection target) or a sensing probe (receptor) functionalized on the rGO sensing membrane. Taken together, this work may have an immense effect on positioning FET bioelectronics for rapid SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyun-June Jang
- Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering, University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
- Chemical
Sciences and Engineering Division, Physical Sciences and Engineering
Directorate, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States
| | - Wen Zhuang
- Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering, University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
- Chemical
Sciences and Engineering Division, Physical Sciences and Engineering
Directorate, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States
| | - Xiaoyu Sui
- Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering, University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
- Chemical
Sciences and Engineering Division, Physical Sciences and Engineering
Directorate, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States
| | - Byunghoon Ryu
- Chemical
Sciences and Engineering Division, Physical Sciences and Engineering
Directorate, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States
| | - Xiaodan Huang
- Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering, University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Min Chen
- Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering, University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Xiaolei Cai
- Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering, University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Haihui Pu
- Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering, University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
- Chemical
Sciences and Engineering Division, Physical Sciences and Engineering
Directorate, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States
| | - Kathleen Beavis
- Department
of Pathology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Jun Huang
- Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering, University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
| | - Junhong Chen
- Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering, University
of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
- Chemical
Sciences and Engineering Division, Physical Sciences and Engineering
Directorate, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States
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39
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Gao S, Shen M, Wang X, Wang J, Martcheva M, Rong L. A multi-strain model with asymptomatic transmission: Application to COVID-19 in the US. J Theor Biol 2023; 565:111468. [PMID: 36940811 PMCID: PMC10027298 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2023.111468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Revised: 02/08/2023] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 03/23/2023]
Abstract
COVID-19, induced by the SARS-CoV-2 infection, has caused an unprecedented pandemic in the world. New variants of the virus have emerged and dominated the virus population. In this paper, we develop a multi-strain model with asymptomatic transmission to study how the asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic infection influences the transmission between different strains and control strategies that aim to mitigate the pandemic. Both analytical and numerical results reveal that the competitive exclusion principle still holds for the model with the asymptomatic transmission. By fitting the model to the COVID-19 case and viral variant data in the US, we show that the omicron variants are more transmissible but less fatal than the previously circulating variants. The basic reproduction number for the omicron variants is estimated to be 11.15, larger than that for the previous variants. Using mask mandate as an example of non-pharmaceutical interventions, we show that implementing it before the prevalence peak can significantly lower and postpone the peak. The time of lifting the mask mandate can affect the emergence and frequency of subsequent waves. Lifting before the peak will result in an earlier and much higher subsequent wave. Caution should also be taken to lift the restriction when a large portion of the population remains susceptible. The methods and results obtained her e may be applied to the study of the dynamics of other infectious diseases with asymptomatic transmission using other control measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shasha Gao
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, 330000, China; Department of Mathematics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States of America
| | - Mingwang Shen
- China-Australia Joint Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China
| | - Xueying Wang
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99163, United States of America
| | - Jin Wang
- Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN 37403, United States of America
| | - Maia Martcheva
- Department of Mathematics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States of America
| | - Libin Rong
- Department of Mathematics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States of America.
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40
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Ghosh SK, Ghosh S. A mathematical model for COVID-19 considering waning immunity, vaccination and control measures. Sci Rep 2023; 13:3610. [PMID: 36869104 PMCID: PMC9983535 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-30800-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2020] [Accepted: 03/01/2023] [Indexed: 03/05/2023] Open
Abstract
In this work we define a modified SEIR model that accounts for the spread of infection during the latent period, infections from asymptomatic or pauci-symptomatic infected individuals, potential loss of acquired immunity, people's increasing awareness of social distancing and the use of vaccination as well as non-pharmaceutical interventions like social confinement. We estimate model parameters in three different scenarios-in Italy, where there is a growing number of cases and re-emergence of the epidemic, in India, where there are significant number of cases post confinement period and in Victoria, Australia where a re-emergence has been controlled with severe social confinement program. Our result shows the benefit of long term confinement of 50% or above population and extensive testing. With respect to loss of acquired immunity, our model suggests higher impact for Italy. We also show that a reasonably effective vaccine with mass vaccination program are successful measures in significantly controlling the size of infected population. We show that for a country like India, a reduction in contact rate by 50% compared to a reduction of 10% reduces death from 0.0268 to 0.0141% of population. Similarly, for a country like Italy we show that reducing contact rate by half can reduce a potential peak infection of 15% population to less than 1.5% of population, and potential deaths from 0.48 to 0.04%. With respect to vaccination, we show that even a 75% efficient vaccine administered to 50% population can reduce the peak number of infected population by nearly 50% in Italy. Similarly, for India, a 0.056% of population would die without vaccination, while 93.75% efficient vaccine given to 30% population would bring this down to 0.036% of population, and 93.75% efficient vaccine given to 70% population would bring this down to 0.034%.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sachchit Ghosh
- The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, 2006, Australia
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Tsai HC, Yang YF, Pan PJ, Chen SC. Disease burden due to COVID-19 in Taiwan: disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) with implication of Monte Carlo simulations. J Infect Public Health 2023; 16:884-892. [PMID: 37058869 PMCID: PMC10060021 DOI: 10.1016/j.jiph.2023.03.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2022] [Revised: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 03/31/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected a large number of countries. Informing the public and decision makers of the COVID-19's economic burdens is essential for understanding the real pandemic impact. METHODS COVID-19 premature mortality and disability impact in Taiwan was analyzed using the Taiwan National Infectious Disease Statistics System (TNIDSS) by estimating the sex/age-specific years of life lost through death (YLLs), the number of years lived with disability (YLDs), and the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) from January 2020 to November 2021. RESULTS Taiwan recorded 1004.13 DALYs (95% CI: 1002.75-1005.61) per 100,000 population for COVID-19, with YLLs accounting for 99.5% (95% CI: 99.3%99.6%) of all DALYs, with males suffering more from the disease than females. For population aged ≥ 70 years, the disease burdens of YLDs and YLLs were 0.1% and 99.9%, respectively. Furthermore, we found that duration of disease in critical state contributed 63.9% of the variance in DALY estimations. CONCLUSIONS The nationwide estimation of DALYs in Taiwan provides insights into the demographic distributions and key epidemiological parameter for DALYs. The essentiality of enforcing protective precautions when needed is also implicated. The higher YLLs percentage in DALYs also revealed the fact of high confirmed death rates in Taiwan. To reduce infection risks and disease, it is crucial to maintain moderate social distancing, border control, hygiene measures, and increase vaccine coverage levels.
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Taboe HB, Asare-Baah M, Iboi EA, Ngonghala CN. Critical assessment of the impact of vaccine-type and immunity on the burden of COVID-19. Math Biosci 2023; 360:108981. [PMID: 36803672 PMCID: PMC9933549 DOI: 10.1016/j.mbs.2023.108981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2022] [Revised: 02/13/2023] [Accepted: 02/13/2023] [Indexed: 02/17/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a devastating impact on health systems and economies across the globe. Implementing public health measures in tandem with effective vaccination strategies have been instrumental in curtailing the burden of the pandemic. With the three vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. having varying efficacies and waning effects against major COVID-19 strains, understanding the impact of these vaccines on COVID-19 incidence and fatalities is critical. Here, we formulate and use mathematical models to assess the impact of vaccine type, vaccination and booster uptake, and waning of natural and vaccine-induced immunity on the incidence and fatalities of COVID-19 and to predict future trends of the disease in the U.S. when existing control measures are reinforced or relaxed. The results show a 5-fold reduction in the control reproduction number during the initial vaccination period and a 1.8-fold (2-fold) reduction in the control reproduction number during the initial first booster (second booster) uptake period, compared to the respective previous periods. Due to waning of vaccine-induced immunity, vaccinating up to 96% of the U.S. population might be required to attain herd immunity, if booster uptake is low. Additionally, vaccinating and boosting more people from the onset of vaccination and booster uptake, especially with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines (which confer superior protection than the Johnson & Johnson vaccine) would have led to a significant reduction in COVID-19 cases and deaths in the U.S. Furthermore, adopting natural immunity-boosting measures is important in fighting COVID-19 and transmission rate reduction measures such as mask-use are critical in combating COVID-19. The emergence of a more transmissible COVID-19 variant, or early relaxation of existing control measures can lead to a more devastating wave, especially if transmission rate reduction measures and vaccination are relaxed simultaneously, while chances of containing the pandemic are enhanced if both vaccination and transmission rate reduction measures are reinforced simultaneously. We conclude that maintaining or improving existing control measures, and boosting with mRNA vaccines are critical in curtailing the burden of the pandemic in the U.S.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hemaho B. Taboe
- Department of Mathematics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
| | - Michael Asare-Baah
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Florida, College of Public Health and Health Professions, College of Medicine, 2004 Mowry Road, P.O. Box 100231, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA,Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
| | - Enahoro A. Iboi
- Department of Mathematics, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA 30314, United States
| | - Calistus N. Ngonghala
- Department of Mathematics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA,Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA,Corresponding author at: Department of Mathematics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
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Wang Z, Wang R, Wu P, Li B, Li Y, Liu Y, Wang X, Yang P, Tian H, Tian H. Optimization of Population-Level Testing, Contact Tracing, and Isolation in Emerging COVID-19 Outbreaks: a Mathematical Modeling Study - Tonghua City and Beijing Municipality, China, 2021-2022. China CDC Wkly 2023; 5:82-89. [PMID: 36777897 PMCID: PMC9902757 DOI: 10.46234/ccdcw2023.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2022] [Accepted: 12/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction The transmissibility of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant poses challenges for the existing measures containing the virus in China. In response, this study investigates the effectiveness of population-level testing (PLT) and contact tracing (CT) to help curb coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resurgences in China. Methods Two transmission dynamic models (i.e. with and without age structure) were developed to evaluate the effectiveness of PLT and CT. Extensive simulations were conducted to optimize PLT and CT strategies for COVID-19 control and surveillance. Results Urban Omicron resurgences can be controlled by multiple rounds of PLT, supplemented by CT - as long as testing is frequent. This study also evaluated the time needed to detect COVID-19 cases for surveillance under different routine testing rates. The results show that there is a 90% probability of detecting COVID-19 cases within 3 days through daily testing. Otherwise, it takes around 7 days to detect COVID-19 cases at a 90% probability level if biweekly testing is used. Routine testing applied to the age group 21-60 for COVID-19 surveillance would achieve similar performance to that applied to all populations. Discussion Our analysis evaluates potential PLT and CT strategies for COVID-19 control and surveillance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zengmiao Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Center for Global Change and Public Health, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Ruixue Wang
- School of National Safety and Emergency Management, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Peiyi Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Center for Global Change and Public Health, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Bingying Li
- State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Center for Global Change and Public Health, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Yidan Li
- State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Center for Global Change and Public Health, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Yonghong Liu
- Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaoli Wang
- Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing, China
| | - Peng Yang
- Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing, China
| | - Huaiyu Tian
- State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Center for Global Change and Public Health, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China,Huaiyu Tian,
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Nanotechnology-Based RNA Vaccines: Fundamentals, Advantages and Challenges. Pharmaceutics 2023; 15:pharmaceutics15010194. [PMID: 36678823 PMCID: PMC9864317 DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15010194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2022] [Revised: 12/27/2022] [Accepted: 12/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Over the past decades, many drugs based on the use of nanotechnology and nucleic acids have been developed. However, until recently, most of them remained at the stage of pre-clinical development and testing and did not find their way to the clinic. In our opinion, the main reason for this situation lies in the enormous complexity of the development and industrial production of such formulations leading to their high cost. The development of nanotechnology-based drugs requires the participation of scientists from many and completely different specialties including Pharmaceutical Sciences, Medicine, Engineering, Drug Delivery, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Physiology and so on. Nevertheless, emergence of coronavirus and new vaccines based on nanotechnology has shown the high efficiency of this approach. Effective development of vaccines based on the use of nucleic acids and nanomedicine requires an understanding of a wide range of principles including mechanisms of immune responses, nucleic acid functions, nanotechnology and vaccinations. In this regard, the purpose of the current review is to recall the basic principles of the work of the immune system, vaccination, nanotechnology and drug delivery in terms of the development and production of vaccines based on both nanotechnology and the use of nucleic acids.
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Farsaeivahid N, Grenier C, Nazarian S, Wang ML. A Rapid Label-Free Disposable Electrochemical Salivary Point-of-Care Sensor for SARS-CoV-2 Detection and Quantification. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 23:433. [PMID: 36617031 PMCID: PMC9823438 DOI: 10.3390/s23010433] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2022] [Revised: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 12/26/2022] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created an urgent need for accurate early diagnosis and monitoring. A label-free rapid electrochemical point-of-care (POC) biosensor for SARS-CoV-2 detection in human saliva is reported here to help address the shortcomings of traditional nucleic acid amplification methods and give a quantitative assessment of the viral load to track infection status anywhere, using disposable electrochemical sensor chips. A new chemical construct of gold nanoparticles (GNp) and thionine (Th) are immobilized on carboxylic acid functionalized carbon nanotubes (SWCNT-COOH) for high-performance biosensing. The sensor uses saliva with a one-step pretreatment and simple testing procedure as an analytical medium due to the user-friendly and non-invasive nature of its procurement from patients. The sensor has a response time of 5 min with a limit of detection (LOD) reaching 200 and 500 pM for the freely suspended spike (S) protein in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) and human saliva, respectively. The sensor's performance was also proven for detecting a COVID-19 pseudovirus in an electrolyte solution with a LOD of 106 copies/mL. The results demonstrate that the optimized POC sensor developed in this work is a promising device for the label-free electrochemical biosensing detection of SARS-CoV-2 and different species of viruses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadia Farsaeivahid
- Interdisciplinary Engineering Program, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Christian Grenier
- Interdisciplinary Engineering Program, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Sheyda Nazarian
- Interdisciplinary Engineering Program, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Ming L. Wang
- Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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Ngere P, Onsongo J, Langat D, Nzioka E, Mudachi F, Kadivane S, Chege B, Kirui E, Were I, Mutiso S, Kibisu A, Ihahi J, Mutethya G, Mochache T, Lokamar P, Boru W, Makayotto L, Okunga E, Ganda N, Haji A, Gathenji C, Kariuki W, Osoro E, Kasera K, Kuria F, Aman R, Nabyonga J, Amoth P. Characterization of COVID-19 cases in the early phase (March to July 2020) of the pandemic in Kenya. J Glob Health 2022; 12:15001. [PMID: 36583253 PMCID: PMC9801068 DOI: 10.7189/jogh.12.15001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Kenya detected the first case of COVID-19 on March 13, 2020, and as of July 30, 2020, 17 975 cases with 285 deaths (case fatality rate (CFR) = 1.6%) had been reported. This study described the cases during the early phase of the pandemic to provide information for monitoring and response planning in the local context. Methods We reviewed COVID-19 case records from isolation centres while considering national representation and the WHO sampling guideline for clinical characterization of the COVID-19 pandemic within a country. Socio-demographic, clinical, and exposure data were summarized using median and mean for continuous variables and proportions for categorical variables. We assigned exposure variables to socio-demographics, exposure, and contact data, while the clinical spectrum was assigned outcome variables and their associations were assessed. Results A total of 2796 case records were reviewed including 2049 (73.3%) male, 852 (30.5%) aged 30-39 years, 2730 (97.6%) Kenyans, 636 (22.7%) transporters, and 743 (26.6%) residents of Nairobi City County. Up to 609 (21.8%) cases had underlying medical conditions, including hypertension (n = 285 (46.8%)), diabetes (n = 211 (34.6%)), and multiple conditions (n = 129 (21.2%)). Out of 1893 (67.7%) cases with likely sources of exposure, 601 (31.8%) were due to international travel. There were 2340 contacts listed for 577 (20.6%) cases, with 632 contacts (27.0%) being traced. The odds of developing COVID-19 symptoms were higher among case who were aged above 60 years (odds ratio (OR) = 1.99, P = 0.007) or had underlying conditions (OR = 2.73, P < 0.001) and lower among transport sector employees (OR = 0.31, P < 0.001). The odds of developing severe COVID-19 disease were higher among cases who had underlying medical conditions (OR = 1.56, P < 0.001) and lower among cases exposed through community gatherings (OR = 0.27, P < 0.001). The odds of survival of cases from COVID-19 disease were higher among transport sector employees (OR = 3.35, P = 0.004); but lower among cases who were aged ≥60 years (OR = 0.58, P = 0.034) and those with underlying conditions (OR = 0.58, P = 0.025). Conclusion The early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated a need to target the elderly and comorbid cases with prevention and control strategies while closely monitoring asymptomatic cases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip Ngere
- Department of Disease Surveillance and Epidemic Response, Ministry of Health, Kenya,Washington State University, Global Health, Kenya
| | | | - Daniel Langat
- Department of Disease Surveillance and Epidemic Response, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Elizabeth Nzioka
- Public Health Emergency Operation Centre, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Faith Mudachi
- Department of Promotive and Preventive Health, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Samuel Kadivane
- Department of Disease Surveillance and Epidemic Response, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Bernard Chege
- Public Health Emergency Operation Centre, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Elvis Kirui
- National Public Health Laboratory Services, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Ian Were
- Office of the Director General, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Stephen Mutiso
- Department of Promotive and Preventive Health, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Amos Kibisu
- Public Health Emergency Operation Centre, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Josephine Ihahi
- Public Health Emergency Operation Centre, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Gladys Mutethya
- Public Health Emergency Operation Centre, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | | | - Peter Lokamar
- National Public Health Laboratory Services, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Waqo Boru
- Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Lyndah Makayotto
- Department of Disease Surveillance and Epidemic Response, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Emmanuel Okunga
- Department of Disease Surveillance and Epidemic Response, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | | | - Adam Haji
- World Health Organization, Nairobi Kenya
| | | | | | - Eric Osoro
- Washington State University, Global Health, Kenya
| | - Kadondi Kasera
- Public Health Emergency Operation Centre, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Francis Kuria
- Directorate of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | - Rashid Aman
- Cabinet Administrative Secretary, Ministry of Health, Kenya
| | | | - Patrick Amoth
- Office of the Director General, Ministry of Health, Kenya
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Kenu E, Barradas DT, Bandoh DA, Frimpong JA, Noora CL, Bekoe FA. Community-Based Surveillance and Geographic Information System‒Linked Contact Tracing in COVID-19 Case Identification, Ghana, March‒June 2020. Emerg Infect Dis 2022; 28:S114-S120. [PMID: 36502391 DOI: 10.3201/eid2813.221068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghana implemented various mitigation strategies. We describe use of geographic information system (GIS)‒linked contact tracing and increased community-based surveillance (CBS) to help control spread of COVID-19 in Ghana. GIS-linked contact tracing was conducted during March 31-June 16, 2020, in 43 urban districts across 6 regions, and 1-time reverse transcription PCR testing of all persons within a 2-km radius of a confirmed case was performed. CBS was intensified in 6 rural districts during the same period. We extracted and analyzed data from Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System and CBS registers. A total of 3,202 COVID-19 cases reported through GIS-linked contact tracing were associated with a 4-fold increase in the weekly number of reported SARS-CoV-2 infected cases. CBS identified 5.1% (8/157) of confirmed cases in 6 districts assessed. Adaptation of new methods, such as GIS-linked contact tracing and intensified CBS, improved COVID-19 case detection in Ghana.
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Sk T, Biswas S, Sardar T. The impact of a power law-induced memory effect on the SARS-CoV-2 transmission. CHAOS, SOLITONS, AND FRACTALS 2022; 165:112790. [PMID: 36312209 PMCID: PMC9595307 DOI: 10.1016/j.chaos.2022.112790] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2022] [Revised: 10/05/2022] [Accepted: 10/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
It is well established that COVID-19 incidence data follows some power law growth pattern. Therefore, it is natural to believe that the COVID-19 transmission process follows some power law. However, we found no existing model on COVID-19 with a power law effect only in the disease transmission process. Inevitably, it is not clear how this power law effect in disease transmission can influence multiple COVID-19 waves in a location. In this context, we developed a completely new COVID-19 model where a force of infection function in disease transmission follows some power law. Furthermore, different realistic epidemiological scenarios like imperfect social distancing among home-quarantined individuals, disease awareness, vaccination, treatment, and possible reinfection of the recovered population are also considered in the model. Applying some recent techniques, we showed that the proposed system converted to a COVID-19 model with fractional order disease transmission, where order of the fractional derivative ( α ) in the force of infection function represents the memory effect in disease transmission. We studied some mathematical properties of this newly formulated model and determined the basic reproduction number (R 0 ). Furthermore, we estimated several epidemiological parameters of the newly developed fractional order model (including memory index α ) by fitting the model to the daily reported COVID-19 cases from Russia, South Africa, UK, and USA, respectively, for the time period March 01, 2020, till December 01, 2021. Variance-based Sobol's global sensitivity analysis technique is used to measure the effect of different important model parameters (including α ) on the number of COVID-19 waves in a location (W C ). Our findings suggest that α along with the average transmission rate of the undetected (symptomatic and asymptomatic) cases in the community (β 1 ) are mainly influencing multiple COVID-19 waves in those four locations. Numerically, we identified the regions in the parameter space of α andβ 1 for which multiple COVID-19 waves are occurring in those four locations. Furthermore, our findings suggested that increasing memory effect in disease transmission ( α → 0) may decrease the possibility of multiple COVID-19 waves and as well as reduce the severity of disease transmission in those four locations. Based on all the results, we try to identify a few non-pharmaceutical control strategies that may reduce the risk of further SARS-CoV-2 waves in Russia, South Africa, UK, and USA, respectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tahajuddin Sk
- Department of Mathematics, Dinabandhu Andrews College, Kolkata, India
| | - Santosh Biswas
- Department of Mathematics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
| | - Tridip Sardar
- Department of Mathematics, Dinabandhu Andrews College, Kolkata, India
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Epidemiology and Transmission Dynamics of Infectious Diseases and Control Measures. Viruses 2022; 14:v14112510. [PMID: 36423119 PMCID: PMC9695084 DOI: 10.3390/v14112510] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2022] [Revised: 11/10/2022] [Accepted: 11/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The epidemiology and transmission dynamics of infectious diseases must be understood at the individual and community levels to improve public health decision-making for real-time and integrated community-based control strategies. Herein, we explore the epidemiological characteristics for assessing the impact of public health interventions in the community setting and their applications. Computational statistical methods could advance research on infectious disease epidemiology and accumulate scientific evidence of the potential impacts of pharmaceutical/nonpharmaceutical measures to mitigate or control infectious diseases in the community. Novel public health threats from emerging zoonotic infectious diseases are urgent issues. Given these direct and indirect mitigating impacts at various levels to different infectious diseases and their burdens, we must consider an integrated assessment approach, 'One Health', to understand the dynamics and control of infectious diseases.
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Basurto A, Dawid H, Harting P, Hepp J, Kohlweyer D. How to design virus containment policies? A joint analysis of economic and epidemic dynamics under the COVID-19 pandemic. JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC INTERACTION AND COORDINATION 2022; 18:311-370. [PMID: 36320631 PMCID: PMC9614772 DOI: 10.1007/s11403-022-00369-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2021] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
We analyze the impact of different designs of COVID-19-related lockdown policies on economic loss and mortality using a micro-level simulation model, which combines a multi-sectoral closed economy with an epidemic transmission model. In particular, the model captures explicitly the (stochastic) effect of interactions between heterogeneous agents during different economic activities on virus transmissions. The empirical validity of the model is established using data on economic and pandemic dynamics in Germany in the first 6 months after the COVID-19 outbreak. We show that a policy-inducing switch between a strict lockdown and a full opening-up of economic activity based on a high incidence threshold is strictly dominated by alternative policies, which are based on a low incidence threshold combined with a light lockdown with weak restrictions of economic activity or even a continuous weak lockdown. Furthermore, also the ex ante variance of the economic loss suffered during the pandemic is substantially lower under these policies. Keeping the other policy parameters fixed, a variation of the consumption restrictions during the lockdown induces a trade-off between GDP loss and mortality. Furthermore, we study the robustness of these findings with respect to alternative pandemic scenarios and examine the optimal timing of lifting containment measures in light of a vaccination rollout in the population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro Basurto
- Bielefeld Graduate School of Economics and Management (BiGSEM), Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Herbert Dawid
- ETACE and Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | | | - Jasper Hepp
- Bielefeld Graduate School of Economics and Management (BiGSEM), Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
- ETACE and Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
- ETACE, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Dirk Kohlweyer
- ETACE and Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
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