Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-23-2024
Identifier
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1408281; PMCID: PMC11300224
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Limited data about acute respiratory illness (ARI) and respiratory virus circulation are available in congregate community settings, specifically schools. To better characterize the epidemiology of ARI and respiratory viruses in schools, we developed School Knowledge of Infectious Diseases in Schools (School KIDS).
METHODS: School KIDS is a prospective, respiratory viral testing program in a large metropolitan school district (pre-kindergarten-12th grade) in Kansas City, Missouri. During the 2022-2023 school year, all students and staff were eligible to participate in surveillance respiratory viral testing at school by submitting observed self-administered nasal swabs monthly. Participants could also submit a nasal swab for on-demand symptomatic testing when experiencing ≥1 ARI symptom, including cough, fever, nasal congestion, runny nose, shortness of breath, sore throat, and/or wheezing. Swabs were tested in a research laboratory using multipathogen respiratory polymerase chain reaction assays. Participants were evaluated for ongoing viral shedding by collecting two weekly nasal swabs (i.e., convalescent), following initial on-demand symptomatic testing. Participants were asked to complete an electronic survey to capture the presence and type of ARI symptom(s) before the collection of respiratory swabs.
RESULTS: From 31 October 2022 to 29 June 2023, School KIDS enrolled 978 participants, including 700 students, representing 3.4% of the district student population, and 278 staff members. Participants submitted a median of six surveillance, one symptomatic, and two convalescent specimens during the study period. A total of 6,315 respiratory specimens, including 4,700 surveillance, 721 on-demand symptomatic, and 894 convalescent specimens, were tested. Overall, a virus was detected in 1,168 (24.9%) surveillance and 363 (50.3%) symptomatic specimens. Of the 5,538 symptom surveys sent to participants before scheduled surveillance testing, 4,069 (73.5%) were completed; ARI symptoms were reported on 1,348 (33.1%) surveys.
CONCLUSION: Respiratory surveillance testing in schools is feasible and provides novel information about respiratory virus detections in students and staff attending school. Schools are an important community setting, and better knowledge of respiratory virus circulation in schools may be useful to identify respiratory virus transmission in the community and assess the impact of effective infection prevention measures.
Journal Title
Front Public Health
Volume
12
First Page
1408281
Last Page
1408281
MeSH Keywords
Humans; Respiratory Tract Infections; Missouri; Schools; Prospective Studies; Adolescent; Child; Female; Male; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Students; Child, Preschool; Virus Diseases
Keywords
acute respiratory illness; respiratory virus; school; students; surveillance; teachers
Recommended Citation
Schuster JE, Chohdry TT, Young CT, et al. School knowledge of infectious diseases in schools: conducting surveillance and on-demand, symptomatic respiratory viral testing in a large pre-kindergarten-12th grade school district. Front Public Health. 2024;12:1408281. Published 2024 Jul 23. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2024.1408281
Comments
Grants and funding
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under a contract to Children’s Mercy Kansas City (75D30122C15140). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Publisher's Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1408281/full