Pathways to COVID-19 ‘community protection’

Autor: B.J. Marais, T.C. Sorrell
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: International Journal of Infectious Diseases, Vol 96, Iss , Pp 496-499 (2020)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1201-9712
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.05.058
Popis: To date, no country has reached a natural COVID-19 epidemic peak and observed peaks essentially reflect the effectiveness of ‘lockdown’ measures. The major challenge is finding a responsible way out of ‘lockdown’, given that SARS- CoV-2 is now an established global pathogen. Acknowledging limitations in our knowledge regarding the sufficiency and durability of immune responses following natural SARS Cov-2 infection, we discuss three pathways to ‘community protection’. Uncontrolled epidemic spread (route 1; R0 > 2) has been associated with overwhelmed health care systems and high death rates, especially in the vulnerable. Controlled epidemic spread (route 2; effective R0 1–2) can be achieved with limited or strict control of social mixing; strict control will be necessary to ensure that only low-risk individuals become infected, without spill-over to vulnerable groups during their period of infectiousness. It has been demonstrated that local epidemic elimination (route 3; effective R0
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals