Social Distancing Alters the Clinical Course of COVID-19 in Young Adults: A Comparative Cohort Study
| Autor: | Thomas Werner Buehrer, Giovanni Andrea Gerardo Crameri, Daniele Meyerhofer, Michel Bielecki, Zeno Stanga, Jeremy W. Deuel, Denise Siegrist, Roland Züst, Andreas Stettbacher |
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| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male 0301 basic medicine Microbiology (medical) Pediatrics medicine.medical_specialty Physical Distancing 030106 microbiology Population Disease Cohort Studies Young Adult 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Major Article medicine Humans 030212 general & internal medicine Young adult education education.field_of_study SARS-CoV-2 Transmission (medicine) business.industry Social distance social distancing COVID-19 Outbreak 3. Good health AcademicSubjects/MED00290 Infectious Diseases viral inoculum Cohort Cohort study business Switzerland |
| Zdroj: | Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Clinical Infectious Diseases |
| ISSN: | 1537-6591 1058-4838 |
| Popis: | Background Social distancing and stringent hygiene seem to be effective in reducing the number of transmitted virus particles, and therefore the infectivity, of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and could alter the mode of transmission of the disease. However, it is not known if such practices can change the clinical course in infected individuals. Methods We prospectively studied an outbreak of COVID-19 in Switzerland among a population of 508 predominantly male soldiers with a median age of 21 years. We followed the number of infections in 2 spatially separated cohorts with almost identical baseline characteristics with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) before and after implementation of stringent social distancing. Results Of the 354 soldiers infected prior to the implementation of social distancing, 30% fell ill from COVID-19, while no soldier in a group of 154, in which infections appeared after implementation of social distancing, developed COVID-19 despite the detection of viral RNA in the nasal and virus-specific antibodies within this group. Conclusions Social distancing not only can slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in a cohort of young, healthy adults but it can also prevent the outbreak of COVID-19 while still inducing an immune response and colonizing nasal passages. Viral inoculum during infection or mode of transmission may be a key factor determining the clinical course of COVID-19. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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