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SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the Military during the Early Phase of the Pandemic—A Systematic Analysis

Militaries worldwide have been affected by COVID-19 pandemic. However, the impact and epidemiological characteristics of transmission during the early phase of the pandemic is not well-studied. This study aims to systematically estimate the baseline incidence of COVID-19 in the military worldwide an...

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Autores principales: Gwee, Sylvia Xiao Wei, Chua, Pearleen Ee Yong, Pang, Junxiong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9224230/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35742662
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19127418
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author Gwee, Sylvia Xiao Wei
Chua, Pearleen Ee Yong
Pang, Junxiong
author_facet Gwee, Sylvia Xiao Wei
Chua, Pearleen Ee Yong
Pang, Junxiong
author_sort Gwee, Sylvia Xiao Wei
collection PubMed
description Militaries worldwide have been affected by COVID-19 pandemic. However, the impact and epidemiological characteristics of transmission during the early phase of the pandemic is not well-studied. This study aims to systematically estimate the baseline incidence of COVID-19 in the military worldwide and identify the potential risk factors of transmission and clinical characteristics of the cases. English and Chinese literature reporting COVID-19 cases in military worldwide published on four electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and CKNI) through 28 May 2021 were systematically screened and synthesized qualitatively. Forty-six studies involving at least 711,408 military personnel in 17 countries were synthesized. Low incidence of cases was observed in the military with pooled COVID-19 incidence of 0.19% (95%CI: 0.00–9.18%). We observed a higher incidence among those (1) with overseas exposure (39.85%; 95%CI: 0.00–95.87%) rather than local exposure (3.03%; 95%CI: 0.00–12.53%), (2) who were on either local/overseas military deployment (26.78%; 95%CI: 0.00–71.51%) as compared to those not deployed (4.37%; 95%CI: 0.00–17.93%), and (3) on overseas military deployment (39.84%; 95%CI: 0.00–95.87%) as compared to local military deployment (3.03%; 95%CI: 2.37–3.74%). The majority of the cases were symptomatic (77.90% (95%CI: 43.91–100.00%)); hospitalization and mortality rates were low at 4.43% (95%CI: 0.00–25.34%) and 0.25% (95%CI: 0.00–0.85%), respectively; and headache, anosmia, ageusia, myalgia, nasal congestion, and cough were the most commonly observed symptoms. Overseas and local deployment were observed to have higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Sustainable, active SARS-CoV-2 surveillance strategies are crucial to detect and contain transmission early during military deployments.
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spelling pubmed-92242302022-06-24 SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the Military during the Early Phase of the Pandemic—A Systematic Analysis Gwee, Sylvia Xiao Wei Chua, Pearleen Ee Yong Pang, Junxiong Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Militaries worldwide have been affected by COVID-19 pandemic. However, the impact and epidemiological characteristics of transmission during the early phase of the pandemic is not well-studied. This study aims to systematically estimate the baseline incidence of COVID-19 in the military worldwide and identify the potential risk factors of transmission and clinical characteristics of the cases. English and Chinese literature reporting COVID-19 cases in military worldwide published on four electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and CKNI) through 28 May 2021 were systematically screened and synthesized qualitatively. Forty-six studies involving at least 711,408 military personnel in 17 countries were synthesized. Low incidence of cases was observed in the military with pooled COVID-19 incidence of 0.19% (95%CI: 0.00–9.18%). We observed a higher incidence among those (1) with overseas exposure (39.85%; 95%CI: 0.00–95.87%) rather than local exposure (3.03%; 95%CI: 0.00–12.53%), (2) who were on either local/overseas military deployment (26.78%; 95%CI: 0.00–71.51%) as compared to those not deployed (4.37%; 95%CI: 0.00–17.93%), and (3) on overseas military deployment (39.84%; 95%CI: 0.00–95.87%) as compared to local military deployment (3.03%; 95%CI: 2.37–3.74%). The majority of the cases were symptomatic (77.90% (95%CI: 43.91–100.00%)); hospitalization and mortality rates were low at 4.43% (95%CI: 0.00–25.34%) and 0.25% (95%CI: 0.00–0.85%), respectively; and headache, anosmia, ageusia, myalgia, nasal congestion, and cough were the most commonly observed symptoms. Overseas and local deployment were observed to have higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Sustainable, active SARS-CoV-2 surveillance strategies are crucial to detect and contain transmission early during military deployments. MDPI 2022-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9224230/ /pubmed/35742662 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19127418 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gwee, Sylvia Xiao Wei
Chua, Pearleen Ee Yong
Pang, Junxiong
SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the Military during the Early Phase of the Pandemic—A Systematic Analysis
title SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the Military during the Early Phase of the Pandemic—A Systematic Analysis
title_full SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the Military during the Early Phase of the Pandemic—A Systematic Analysis
title_fullStr SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the Military during the Early Phase of the Pandemic—A Systematic Analysis
title_full_unstemmed SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the Military during the Early Phase of the Pandemic—A Systematic Analysis
title_short SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the Military during the Early Phase of the Pandemic—A Systematic Analysis
title_sort sars-cov-2 transmission in the military during the early phase of the pandemic—a systematic analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9224230/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35742662
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19127418
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