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SARS-CoV-2 Infections in a High-Risk Migratory Population Arriving to a Migrant House along the US-Mexico Border

Few reports exist on the COVID-19 epidemiology of migrant populations. We tested 370 migratory individuals from ten countries arriving at a migrant house along the US–Mexico border based on a rapid assay detecting SARS-CoV-2 antigen. Fifty-six were positive, for a prevalence of 15.1% (95%–CIs of 11....

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Autores principales: Fernández-Santos, Nadia A., Hamer, Gabriel L., Garrido-Lozada, Edith G., Rodríguez-Pérez, Mario A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9607274/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36288002
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7100262
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author Fernández-Santos, Nadia A.
Hamer, Gabriel L.
Garrido-Lozada, Edith G.
Rodríguez-Pérez, Mario A.
author_facet Fernández-Santos, Nadia A.
Hamer, Gabriel L.
Garrido-Lozada, Edith G.
Rodríguez-Pérez, Mario A.
author_sort Fernández-Santos, Nadia A.
collection PubMed
description Few reports exist on the COVID-19 epidemiology of migrant populations. We tested 370 migratory individuals from ten countries arriving at a migrant house along the US–Mexico border based on a rapid assay detecting SARS-CoV-2 antigen. Fifty-six were positive, for a prevalence of 15.1% (95%–CIs of 11.8–19.2%). Only 21 positive persons presented signs or symptoms associated with the infection (95%–CIs = 25–49%). Most (51.7%) positive migrants arrived in the previous two days before being tested, indicating that the virus infection was acquired during their transit. Out of the total of 56 positive individuals, 37.5% were from El Salvador, 33.9% from Honduras, and 21.4% from Guatemala. This study suggests that vulnerable populations traveling from countries in Latin America and seeking residence in the US are high-risk individuals for exposure to SARS-CoV-2. The rapid antigen COVID-19 testing on arrival at the migrant house, and subsequent 10-day quarantine, was a critical step to help minimize further transmission. Therefore, the present study demonstrates that public health services provided to migratory and vulnerable populations are necessary for pandemic control.
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spelling pubmed-96072742022-10-28 SARS-CoV-2 Infections in a High-Risk Migratory Population Arriving to a Migrant House along the US-Mexico Border Fernández-Santos, Nadia A. Hamer, Gabriel L. Garrido-Lozada, Edith G. Rodríguez-Pérez, Mario A. Trop Med Infect Dis Brief Report Few reports exist on the COVID-19 epidemiology of migrant populations. We tested 370 migratory individuals from ten countries arriving at a migrant house along the US–Mexico border based on a rapid assay detecting SARS-CoV-2 antigen. Fifty-six were positive, for a prevalence of 15.1% (95%–CIs of 11.8–19.2%). Only 21 positive persons presented signs or symptoms associated with the infection (95%–CIs = 25–49%). Most (51.7%) positive migrants arrived in the previous two days before being tested, indicating that the virus infection was acquired during their transit. Out of the total of 56 positive individuals, 37.5% were from El Salvador, 33.9% from Honduras, and 21.4% from Guatemala. This study suggests that vulnerable populations traveling from countries in Latin America and seeking residence in the US are high-risk individuals for exposure to SARS-CoV-2. The rapid antigen COVID-19 testing on arrival at the migrant house, and subsequent 10-day quarantine, was a critical step to help minimize further transmission. Therefore, the present study demonstrates that public health services provided to migratory and vulnerable populations are necessary for pandemic control. MDPI 2022-09-24 /pmc/articles/PMC9607274/ /pubmed/36288002 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7100262 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 Brief Report
Fernández-Santos, Nadia A.
Hamer, Gabriel L.
Garrido-Lozada, Edith G.
Rodríguez-Pérez, Mario A.
SARS-CoV-2 Infections in a High-Risk Migratory Population Arriving to a Migrant House along the US-Mexico Border
title SARS-CoV-2 Infections in a High-Risk Migratory Population Arriving to a Migrant House along the US-Mexico Border
title_full SARS-CoV-2 Infections in a High-Risk Migratory Population Arriving to a Migrant House along the US-Mexico Border
title_fullStr SARS-CoV-2 Infections in a High-Risk Migratory Population Arriving to a Migrant House along the US-Mexico Border
title_full_unstemmed SARS-CoV-2 Infections in a High-Risk Migratory Population Arriving to a Migrant House along the US-Mexico Border
title_short SARS-CoV-2 Infections in a High-Risk Migratory Population Arriving to a Migrant House along the US-Mexico Border
title_sort sars-cov-2 infections in a high-risk migratory population arriving to a migrant house along the us-mexico border
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9607274/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36288002
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7100262
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