Epidemiological analysis of an outbreak of an adenovirus type 7 infection in a boot camp in China
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Published on: April 19, 2024
Zuiyuan Guo1, Libo Tong1, Shuang Xu1
1Department of Disease Control, Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Northern Theater Command, Shenyang, Liaoning, China.
Background:
An outbreak of respiratory disease associated with adenovirus type 7 occurred in a boot camp in China and was characterized by many cases, severe symptoms, and intrapulmonary infection in many patients.
Methods:
We implemented a series of comprehensive preventive and control measures. We analyzed the incubation period and generation time by using the maximum likelihood method, assessed the symptom period and hospitalization duration using the Kaplan-Meier method, and estimated the basic reproductive number and dormitory transmission rate by using established methods.
Results:
The epidemic lasted for 30 days, and 375 individuals were affected. Overall, 109 patients were hospitalized, and 266 individuals were isolated and treated. The median incubation period was 5.2 days (95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.0 to 5.4 days). The median generation time was 7.3 days (95% CI: 7.1 to 7.6 days). The median symptom period was 6 days (95% CI: 6 to 7 days). The median hospitalization duration was 9 days (95% CI: 9 to 11 days). The basic reproductive number was 5.1 (95% CI: 4.6 to 5.6), and the dormitory transmission rate was 0.15 (95% CI: 0.12 to 0.18).
Conclusion:
Patients in the early stage of the epidemic were treated as having a regular cold and were not isolated; therefore, the virus continued to be transmitted to other susceptible individuals.
