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Epidemiology, Disease Transmission, Prevention, and Control
Published in Julius P. Kreier, Infection, Resistance, and Immunity, 2022
Vehicle-borne transmission occurs when the infectious organisms are carried by contaminated inanimate objects such as toys, handkerchiefs, soiled clothes, bedding, cooking or eating utensils, surgical instruments or dressings, water or food. Inanimate objects carrying disease organisms are called fomites.
A brief history of pandemics
Published in Edward M. Rafalski, Ross M. Mullner, Healthcare Analytics, 2022
Many further epidemics and pandemics have occurred in the two and a half millennia since the Plague of Athens. These can be broadly classified by mode of transmission, which is useful when considering infection control measures in the context of government policy or in healthcare delivery settings. Common modes of transmission for significant (region-, country-, or world-wide) spread of infections include vector-borne, airborne, and oral ingestion from a common source (Table 2.1). Other modes of transmission, such as direct person-to-person contract and fomite spread, may account for local or (rarely) regional spread, but do not lend themselves to pandemic spread. Ebola is an example of a disease which is spread directly person-to-person; it is acquired by contact with infected bodily fluids from an ill individual. Because persons who are contagious with Ebola exhibit significant signs of infection including hemorrhage from mucus membranes, outbreaks can be limited through education, community engagement, and standard infection control measures. The 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa encompassed Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia and was the largest in scope to this point. Fomite spread of organisms is a concern in hospitals, where spread from an infected person to another patient via the intermediary of contaminated objects can occur for many viral and bacterial organisms, but this is a limited mode of transmission.
Norovirus
Published in Firza Alexander Gronthoud, Practical Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 2020
The fecal-oral route is the main mode of transmission, although several other modalities have been described. These modalities include transmission via aerosolized viral particles in vomitus and through food, water and environmental contamination (norovirus can survive for up to 7 days on fomites). GII.4 is more likely to be associated with person-to-person transmission, especially in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) and hospital settings, whereas GI.7 and GII.12 are associated with food-borne disease.
SARS-CoV-2 effects on male reproduction: should men be worried??
Published in Human Fertility, 2023
Marziye Farsimadan, Mohammad Motamedifar
At the end of December 2019, the first case of COVID-19 was identified in Wuhan, China. COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) (Lai et al., 2020). The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic on 11th March 2020. Fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, sputum production, and headache are the common symptoms. Gastrointestinal symptoms and anosmia have also been seen frequently in patients (Lin et al., 2020). COVID-19 patients are divided into three different groups according to the severity of the infection (Han, Ma, et al., 2020). About 80% of them have mild flu-like symptoms, 15–20% suffer from severe symptoms, and 5% are in critical condition and need mechanical ventilation. Transmission of COVID-19 is mainly through respiratory droplets and fomites (Kissler et al., 2020). The virus has also been found in the blood (Wang et al., 2020), urine (Peng et al., 2020), faeces (Xiao et al., 2020), and gastrointestinal samples (Ng & Tilg, 2020) of patients. It is not yet clear whether SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted through non-respiratory bodily fluid. Considering the rising prevalence of COVID-19 worldwide, understanding all routes of transmission would significantly help to control its severe outbreak.
Environmental surface contamination with SARS-CoV-2 in professional football clubs
Published in Science and Medicine in Football, 2021
Yorck O. Schumacher, Montassar Tabben, Karim Chamari, Peter Dzendrowskyj, Roald Bahr, Khalid Hassoun, Ahmed Khellil Abbassi, Meryem Bensaad, Bayan Al Barghouthi, Moza Alishaq, Rayyan Abdulaziz Attya Fadel, Andrew M. Jeremijenko
The infective dose (i.e. = the quantity of virus necessary to cause an infection in humans) of SARS-CoV-2 is still an object of research, but first results indicate that it is likely similar to other respiratory viruses, which also mainly transfer through droplets that are taken up by the respiratory system (Karimzadeh et al. 2020). For many of those viruses, fomite transmission is therefore regarded as being of minor relevance. This is confirmed by our data: on the tested surfaces, we were unable to find virus in sufficient quality and quantity to potentially cause infection. The only four samples containing low quantities of virus (unlikely to be infectious) came from areas in two clubs where infected athletes are most likely to roam, namely training facilities and the medical area. Both clubs had players and staff testing positive or reactive in the week before or after the environmental swabs were obtained.
Coronavirus disease – COVID-19: new perceptives towards epidemic to pandemic
Published in Journal of Drug Targeting, 2020
S. B. Santhosh, A. Mohamed Sheik Tharik, M. Susitra Manjari, R. Balakrishnan, N. Muruganandam, M. J. N. Chandrasekar
COVID-19 is transmitted through large droplets or droplet nuclei and fomites during the close contact between an infector and infectee. The estimation of median reproduction number of COVID-19, namely the number of secondary infections generated from one infected individual, was found to be 2–2.5. According to early data, adults are more prone to the virus than children. The estimated clinical attack rates between the age group 0 and 19 are low. Moreover, the initial data of household transmission investigation in China revealed that children are prone to infection from the adults and vice versa [17]. Increased infections in family clusters and health professionals were also recorded. Human-to-human virus transmission has also been confirmed. Most patients experienced high fever, few patients had dyspnoea and the chest radio-graphs of these patients revealed invasive lesions in both lungs [18]. Faecal shedding has been demonstrated in some patients, and viable virus has been identified during a limited number of case reports. The faecal-oral route, however, has not yet proved to be a driver of COVID-19 transmission [17].