Asymptomatic infections of covid-19 in golaghat district, assam, 2020 screened among close contacts of nizamuddin tablighi jamaat: a case series observational study

Author: 
Bishnu Ram Das, Gitali Kakoti , Sampurna Bora , Subhradeep Sonowal and Arpan Kumar Das

Background: Limited data are available for asymptomatic infections of COVID-19. The gaps still persist in the natural history of COVID-19 pandemic.
Aim: This study aimed to fill up the gaps of natural history of disease by reporting the epidemiological characteristics of 9 COVID-19 positive cases with asymptomatic infection screened from close contacts of Nizamuddin Tablighi Jamaat and to show the transmission potential of asymptomatic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) carriers.
Setting: The study was conducted at IDSP unit of Golaghat district of Assam, India 
Methods: In-depth investigations were conducted among close contacts of COVID-19 patients (or suspected patients) of Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation that took place in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz Mosque in early March 2020.Asymptomatic carriers were laboratory-confirmed positive for SARS-CoV-2 by testing nasopharyngeal/throat swab samples with Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR).
Results: Highest numbers of cases (67%) were from the age groups < 40 years and 45% were male and by occupation all of the participants were farmers. All the RT-PCR positive COVID-19 cases were asymptomatic at the time of testing and remained as such till the last follow up. On the other hand some of the asymptomatic cases (11%) remained virologically (RT-PCR) positive till 28th day from the date of first positive.
Conclusion: The present study indicates that in SARS-CoV-2 infection asymptomatic cases are occurring and virus shedding is noticeable during asymptomatic phase which was confirmed by RT-PCR assay.
 

Page: 
5164-5168
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DOI: 
http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/23956429.ijcmpr202005883
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