Escalating spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection after school reopening among students in hotspot districts of Oromia Region in Ethiopia: Longitudinal study

COVID-19 pandemic caused by extended variants of SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 350 million people, resulting in over 5.5 million deaths globally. However, the actual burden of the pandemic in Africa, particularly among children, remains largely unknown. We aimed to assess the seroepidemiological...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2023-02, Vol.18 (2), p.e0280801-e0280801
Main Authors: Gobena, Dabesa, Kebede Gudina, Esayas, Yilma, Daniel, Girma, Tsinuel, Gebre, Getu, Gelanew, Tesfaye, Abdissa, Alemseged, Mulleta, Daba, Sarbessa, Tarekegn, Asefa, Henok, Woldie, Mirkuzie, Shumi, Gemechu, Kenate, Birhanu, Kroidl, Arne, Wieser, Andreas, Eshetu, Beza, Degfie, Tizta Tilahun, Mekonnen, Zeleke
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Biology and life sciences
Child
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Disease hot spots
Disease transmission
Earth Sciences
Electronic components industry
Elementary school students
Epidemics
Epidemiology
Ethiopia
Ethiopia - epidemiology
Family size
Health aspects
High schools
Hot spots
Humans
Infection
Infections
International economic relations
Longitudinal Studies
Medicine and Health Sciences
Nucleocapsids
Outbreaks
Pandemics
People and Places
Prospective Studies
SARS-CoV-2
Schools
Seroepidemiologic Studies
Seroepidemiology
Serology
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Social Sciences
Students
Sub-Saharan Africa
United States
Viral diseases
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Summary:COVID-19 pandemic caused by extended variants of SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than 350 million people, resulting in over 5.5 million deaths globally. However, the actual burden of the pandemic in Africa, particularly among children, remains largely unknown. We aimed to assess the seroepidemiological changes of SARS-CoV-2 infection after school reopening among school children in Oromia, Ethiopia. A prospective cohort study involving students aged 10 years and older were used. A serological survey was performed twice, at school reopening in December 2020 and four months later in April 2021. Participants were selected from 60 schools located in 15 COVID-19 hotspot districts in Oromia Region. Serology tests were performed by Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid assay. Data were collected using CSentry CSProData Entry 7.2.1 and exported to STATA version 14.2 for data cleaning and analysis. A total of 1884 students were recruited at baseline, and 1271 completed the follow-up. SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence almost doubled in four months from 25.7% at baseline to 46.3% in the second round, with a corresponding seroincidence of 1910 per 100,000 person-week. Seroincidence was found to be higher among secondary school students (grade 9-12) compared to primary school students (grade 4-8) (RR = 1.6, 95% CI 1.21-2.22) and among those with large family size (> = 5) than those with a family size of
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0280801