Contagious Period for Pandemic (H1N1) 2009

We estimated the proportion of persons with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 who were shedding infectious virus at diagnosis and on day 8 of illness. In households with confirmed cases, nasopharyngeal swabs were collected on all members and tested by PCR and virus culture. Of 47 cases confirmed by PCR at <7...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gaston De Serres, Isabelle Rouleau, Marie-Eve Hamelin, Caroline Quach, Danuta Skowronski, Louis Flamand, Nicole Boulianne, Yan Li, Julie Carbonneau, Anne-Marie Bourgault, Michel Couillard, Hugues Charest, Guy Boivin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2010-05-01
Series:Emerging Infectious Diseases
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Online Access:https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/5/09-1894_article
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Summary:We estimated the proportion of persons with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 who were shedding infectious virus at diagnosis and on day 8 of illness. In households with confirmed cases, nasopharyngeal swabs were collected on all members and tested by PCR and virus culture. Of 47 cases confirmed by PCR at <7 days of illness, virus culture was positive in 92% (11/12) of febrile and 63% (22/35) of afebrile persons. Of 43 persons with PCR-confirmed pandemic (H1N1) 2009 from whom a second specimen was collected on day 8, 74% remained PCR positive and 19% were culture positive. If the 73 symptomatic household members without PCR-confirmed illness are assumed to have pandemic (H1N1) 2009, a minimum of 8% (6/73) of case-patients shed replicating virus on day 8. Self-isolation only until fever abates appears insufficient to limit transmission. Self-isolation for a week may be more effective, although some case-patients still would shed infectious virus.
ISSN:1080-6040
1080-6059