Cargando…
In-flight transmission of COVID-19 on flights to Greece: An epidemiological analysis
BACKGROUND: The emergence in China in late 2019 and subsequent progression of a pandemic of a respiratory disease named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was highly facilitated by international travel. We present 5 cases of probable in-flight transmission in Greece. METHODS: We studied internation...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier Ltd.
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7494513/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32949700 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101882 |
_version_ | 1783582767007662080 |
---|---|
author | Pavli, Androula Smeti, Paraskevi Hadjianastasiou, Sophia Theodoridou, Kalliopi Spilioti, Athina Papadima, Kalliopi Andreopoulou, Anastasia Gkolfinopoulou, Kassiani Sapounas, Spyros Spanakis, Nikolaos Tsakris, Athanasios Maltezou, Helena C. |
author_facet | Pavli, Androula Smeti, Paraskevi Hadjianastasiou, Sophia Theodoridou, Kalliopi Spilioti, Athina Papadima, Kalliopi Andreopoulou, Anastasia Gkolfinopoulou, Kassiani Sapounas, Spyros Spanakis, Nikolaos Tsakris, Athanasios Maltezou, Helena C. |
author_sort | Pavli, Androula |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The emergence in China in late 2019 and subsequent progression of a pandemic of a respiratory disease named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was highly facilitated by international travel. We present 5 cases of probable in-flight transmission in Greece. METHODS: We studied international passengers arriving to or departing from Greece from February 26 through March 9, 2020. Contact tracing extended up to 4 days before the onset of symptoms and focused on close contacts. Close contacts were defined as persons sitting within a distance of <2 m for >15 min, including passengers seated two seats around the index case and all crew members and persons who had close contact with the index case. RESULTS: We investigated 18 international flights with 2224 passengers and 110 crew members. Main countries of departure included Northern Italy, Israel and the United Kingdom. In accordance with the national surveillance investigation, in these flights there were 21 index cases and 891 contact traced cases. Six index cases were symptomatic during the flight. Of the 891 contact traced cases, 4 passengers and 1 crew member developed laboratory-confirmed infection (3 with COVID-19 and 2 with asymptomatic infection); they travelled on the same flight with two COVID-19 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Air travel has played a central role in the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are scarce data about in-flight transmission. Our extensive investigation showed five cases of probable in-flight transmission. Efforts should be placed in order to ensure the prompt implementation of appropriate infection control measures on board. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7494513 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Elsevier Ltd. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-74945132020-09-17 In-flight transmission of COVID-19 on flights to Greece: An epidemiological analysis Pavli, Androula Smeti, Paraskevi Hadjianastasiou, Sophia Theodoridou, Kalliopi Spilioti, Athina Papadima, Kalliopi Andreopoulou, Anastasia Gkolfinopoulou, Kassiani Sapounas, Spyros Spanakis, Nikolaos Tsakris, Athanasios Maltezou, Helena C. Travel Med Infect Dis Brief Report BACKGROUND: The emergence in China in late 2019 and subsequent progression of a pandemic of a respiratory disease named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was highly facilitated by international travel. We present 5 cases of probable in-flight transmission in Greece. METHODS: We studied international passengers arriving to or departing from Greece from February 26 through March 9, 2020. Contact tracing extended up to 4 days before the onset of symptoms and focused on close contacts. Close contacts were defined as persons sitting within a distance of <2 m for >15 min, including passengers seated two seats around the index case and all crew members and persons who had close contact with the index case. RESULTS: We investigated 18 international flights with 2224 passengers and 110 crew members. Main countries of departure included Northern Italy, Israel and the United Kingdom. In accordance with the national surveillance investigation, in these flights there were 21 index cases and 891 contact traced cases. Six index cases were symptomatic during the flight. Of the 891 contact traced cases, 4 passengers and 1 crew member developed laboratory-confirmed infection (3 with COVID-19 and 2 with asymptomatic infection); they travelled on the same flight with two COVID-19 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Air travel has played a central role in the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are scarce data about in-flight transmission. Our extensive investigation showed five cases of probable in-flight transmission. Efforts should be placed in order to ensure the prompt implementation of appropriate infection control measures on board. Elsevier Ltd. 2020 2020-09-17 /pmc/articles/PMC7494513/ /pubmed/32949700 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101882 Text en © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Brief Report Pavli, Androula Smeti, Paraskevi Hadjianastasiou, Sophia Theodoridou, Kalliopi Spilioti, Athina Papadima, Kalliopi Andreopoulou, Anastasia Gkolfinopoulou, Kassiani Sapounas, Spyros Spanakis, Nikolaos Tsakris, Athanasios Maltezou, Helena C. In-flight transmission of COVID-19 on flights to Greece: An epidemiological analysis |
title | In-flight transmission of COVID-19 on flights to Greece: An epidemiological analysis |
title_full | In-flight transmission of COVID-19 on flights to Greece: An epidemiological analysis |
title_fullStr | In-flight transmission of COVID-19 on flights to Greece: An epidemiological analysis |
title_full_unstemmed | In-flight transmission of COVID-19 on flights to Greece: An epidemiological analysis |
title_short | In-flight transmission of COVID-19 on flights to Greece: An epidemiological analysis |
title_sort | in-flight transmission of covid-19 on flights to greece: an epidemiological analysis |
topic | Brief Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7494513/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32949700 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101882 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT pavliandroula inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis AT smetiparaskevi inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis AT hadjianastasiousophia inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis AT theodoridoukalliopi inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis AT spiliotiathina inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis AT papadimakalliopi inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis AT andreopoulouanastasia inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis AT gkolfinopouloukassiani inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis AT sapounasspyros inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis AT spanakisnikolaos inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis AT tsakrisathanasios inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis AT maltezouhelenac inflighttransmissionofcovid19onflightstogreeceanepidemiologicalanalysis |