Natural history of shedding and household transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 using intensive high-resolution sampling.

Importance: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to 775 million documented cases and over 7 million deaths worldwide as of March 2024 and is an ongoing health crisis. To limit viral spread within households and in the community, public health officials have recommended self-isolation, self-quarantine of exposed household contacts, and mask use. Yet, risk of household transmission (HHT) may be underestimated due to low frequency of sampling, and risk factors for HHT are not well understood.

Rapid emergence and transmission of virulence-associated mutations in the oral poliovirus vaccine following vaccination campaigns.

There is an increasing burden of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs) due to the continued use of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). However, the informativeness of routine OPV VP1 sequencing for the early identification of viruses carrying virulence-associated reversion mutations has not been directly evaluated in a controlled setting. We prospectively collected 15,331 stool samples to track OPV shedding from children receiving OPV and their contacts for ten weeks following an immunization campaign in Veracruz State, Mexico and sequenced VP1 genes from 358 samples.

Rapid emergence and transmission of virulence-associated mutations in the oral poliovirus vaccine following vaccination campaigns.

There is an increasing burden of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs) due to the continued use of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). However, the informativeness of routine OPV VP1 sequencing for the early identification of viruses carrying virulence-associated reversion mutations has not been directly evaluated in a controlled setting. We prospectively collected 15,331 stool samples to track OPV shedding from vaccinated children and their contacts for ten weeks following an immunization campaign in Veracruz State, Mexico and sequenced VP1 genes from 358 samples.

Challenges in Harnessing Shared Within-Host Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Variation for Transmission Inference.

Background: The limited variation observed among severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) consensus sequences makes it difficult to reconstruct transmission linkages in outbreak settings. Previous studies have recovered variation within individual SARS-CoV-2 infections but have not yet measured the informativeness of within-host variation for transmission inference.

Methods: We performed tiled amplicon sequencing on 307 SARS-CoV-2 samples, including 130 samples from 32 individuals in 14 households and 47 longitudinally sampled individuals, from 4 prospective studies with household membership data, a proxy for transmission linkage.

Feasibility of Specimen Self-collection in Young Children Undergoing SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance for In-Person Learning.

Importance: There is an urgent need to assess the feasibility of COVID-19 surveillance measures in educational settings.

Objective: To assess whether young children can feasibly self-collect SARS-CoV-2 samples for surveillance testing over the course of an academic year.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This prospective pilot cohort study was conducted from September 10, 2020, to June 10, 2021, at a K-8 school in San Mateo County, California.