Abstract
Background
Little is known about the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and associated respiratory virus detection in students/ staff in primary and secondary schools.
Methods
School KIDS is a prospective respiratory viral surveillance program in a large Missouri school district. Participating students/ staff complete a monthly electronic symptom survey that asks about respiratory symptoms (sx) in the preceding 7 days; participants are categorized based on the presence of any respiratory sx: ongoing (current), resolved, and no sx. Within 36 hours of survey completion, participants undergo surveillance respiratory viral testing at school. Self-administered nasal swabs are tested via multipathogen PCR assay (Table). Prevalence of respiratory viruses in participants with and without sx were calculated. A mixed-effect multivariable logistic regression model was used to compare odds of a sample testing positive based on surveillance sx and enrollee age.
Results
A total of 544 students (30 pre-kindergarten (preK), 320 elementary, 117 middle, and 77 high) and 224 staff enrolled. A total of 2,537 sx surveys with corresponding respiratory samples were collected from November 2, 2022–April 15, 2023 (Table). Of the samples provided, 1,138 were preK-elementary (45%), 368 middle (14%), 276 high (11%), and 755 staff (30%). Participants reported ongoing (20%), resolved (14%), and no sx (66%). Prevalence of commonly reported sx were congestion (21%), runny nose (17%), cough (16%), and fever (3%). Overall respiratory virus test positivity was 26%; 50% of positive samples came from participants without sx. Flu A, PIV, and RSV were more frequently detected in those with ongoing sx. AdV, HMPV, RV/EV, and SARS-CoV-2 were more frequently detected in those with no sx. Increased odds of a positive test were observed among enrollees who reported runny nose (adjusted OR 1.4 [CI 1.0, 1.8]), congestion (adjusted OR 2.2 [CI1.6, 2.8]), cough (adjusted OR 1.5 [CI 1.1, 1.9]), or sore throat (adjusted OR 1.5 [CI 1.1, 2.0]) but not fever (adjusted OR 1.1 [CI 0.7,1.8]).
Conclusion
More research is needed to understand if students with respiratory sx are more likely than asymptomatic students to shed transmissible respiratory viruses.
Disclosures
Rangaraj Selvarangan, BVSc, PhD, D(ABMM), FIDSA, FAAM, Abbott: Honoraria|Altona Diagnostics: Grant/Research Support|Baebies Inc: Advisor/Consultant|BioMerieux: Advisor/Consultant|BioMerieux: Grant/Research Support|Bio-Rad: Grant/Research Support|Cepheid: Grant/Research Support|GSK: Advisor/Consultant|Hologic: Grant/Research Support|Lab Simply: Advisor/Consultant|Luminex: Grant/Research Support