Increased Dengue Transmissions in Singapore Attributable to SARS-CoV-2 Social Distancing Measures

Lim, Jue Tao; Chew, Lawrence Zheng Xiong; Choo, Esther Li Wen; Dickens, Borame Sue Lee; Ong, Janet; Aik, Joel; Ng, Lee Ching; Cook, Alex R.

doi:10.1093/infdis/jiaa619

Cited by 43 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Nonetheless, the group-level shift towards peridomestic activities and increased tick exposure indicates either an increase in the overall tick population or increased exposure in those settings where participants are less inclined to use preventative measures against tick bites 30 . A similar pattern was observed for mosquito-borne disease in two studies on dengue infection: i) a simulation model found that COVID-19 stay-at-home measures (in which 70% of the population restricted their mobility to their house) led to an increase in overall infections and increased clustering of cases at the household level 42 ; and b) an empirical study using dengue case report data in Singapur found a 37.2% increase in the number of cases from expected baseline levels attributed to COVID-19 stay-at-home measures 43 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifts in outdoor activity patterns in the time of COVID-19 and its implications for exposure to vector-borne diseases in the United States.

Fernández

Bron

Kache

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Unintended consequences of human behavioral changes induced by governmental and individual responses to COVID-19 risk are yet to be fully realized. Herein, we evaluated changes in outdoor activity patterns during the spring and summer of 2020 vs. 2019 in the Northeast and Midwest United States. We used self-reported data from daily surveys available through a smartphone application, The Tick App. We simultaneously assessed changes in exposure to tick vectors in relation to changes in outdoor recreation. Outdoor activities and particularly peridomestic activities, increased by two-fold between years, while recreational activities in green spaces decreased by 70%. Tick encounters increased by 30%, and were mainly associated with outdoor activities and living in a rural county. Changes in outdoor recreation were associated with statewide stay-at-home orders in 2020 and persisted as out-of-home mobility increased. Our findings suggest that public health response should also address competing hazards from COVID-19 related outdoor exposure.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifts in outdoor activity patterns in the time of COVID-19 and its implications for exposure to vector-borne diseases in the United States.

Fernández

Bron

Kache

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…SARSeq might also be suitable to test symptomatic persons if a turnaround of 24h for the test itself is acceptable. In addition, SARSeq can be implemented in epidemiology studies to understand the spreading dynamics of infections 45 and to investigate interaction between different pathogens across large populations 46 . However, the main advantage of SARSeq is that the same turnaround time of 15-24 hours can be used to simultaneously test tens of thousands of samples.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SARSeq, a robust and highly multiplexed NGS assay for parallel detection of SARS-CoV2 and other respiratory infections

Yelagandula

Bykov

Vogt

et al. 2020

Preprint

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During a pandemic, mitigation as well as protection of system-critical or vulnerable institutions requires massive parallel, yet cost effective testing to monitor the spread of agents such as the current SARS-CoV2 virus. Here we present SARSeq, saliva analysis by RNA sequencing, as an approach to monitor presence of SARS-CoV2 and other respiratory viruses performed on tens of thousands of samples in parallel. SARSeq is based on next generation sequencing of multiple amplicons generated in parallel in a multiplexed RT-PCR reaction. It relies on a two-dimensional unique dual indexing strategy using four indices in total for unambiguous and scalable assignment of reads to individual samples. We calibrated this method using dilutions of synthetic RNA and virions to show sensitivity down to few molecules, and applied it to hundreds of patient samples validating robust performance across various sample types. Double blinded benchmarking to gold-standard quantitative RT-PCR performed in a clinical setting and a human diagnostics laboratory showed robust performance up to a Ct of 36. The false positive rate, likely due to cross contamination during sample pipetting, was estimated at 0.04-0.1%. In addition to SARS-CoV2, SARSeq detects Influenza A and B viruses as well as human rhinovirus and can be easily expanded to include detection of other pathogens. In sum, SARSeq is an ideal platform for differential diagnostic of respiratory diseases at a scale, as is required during a pandemic.

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“…In addition, many of these dormitories are sited well away from the residential areas that house the general population, offering increased protection from public and private residential developments that were historically more prone to dengue outbreaks. 9 …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within the general community, dengue transmission risk increased during the period of intensified social distancing measures, suggesting that home residences remained as key transmission sites. 9 Domestic and relatively localized outdoor transmission was identified as a primary pathway in Thailand where 60% of dengue cases living <200 m apart were identified as being from the same transmission chain as opposed to 3% which were separated 1 to 5 km apart. 26 In Brazil, 70.4% (95% CI: 58.2% to 79.8%) of individual transmission events occurred within 500 m, 27 and in Vietnam, households were described as foci for dengue transmission in highly urbanized areas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 8 In tandem with the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore experienced a record-breaking dengue outbreak in 2020, with an unprecedented 30 000 diagnosed cases reported at the end of September. A 2-month imposition of social distancing measures nationally in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, similar to lockdown in other countries, contributed to the rise in dengue cases in the general population, 9 , 10 presumably due to increased peridomestic contact between humans and mosquitoes. In the same period, strict quarantine policies have been enacted in migrant worker dormitories due to the large number of cases in these locales and to prevent onward community spread of COVID-19.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Decreased dengue transmission in migrant worker populations in Singapore attributable to SARS-CoV-2 quarantine measures

Lim

Dickens

Ong

et al. 2020

Journal of Travel Medicine

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Background We examined the impact of SARS-CoV-2 social distancing and quarantine policies on dengue transmission in the general and migrant worker populations in Singapore. Methods We utilized all nationally reported dengue cases in the general and migrant worker populations from 1 January 2013 to 31 May 2020. A difference-in-difference identification strategy was used to determine the effects of social distancing and quarantine policies on reported dengue case counts over time, whilst controlling for weather patterns, seasonality, age and population size. Results A reduction of 4.8 dengue cases per age band among migrant workers was attributable to quarantine policies, corresponding to a total reduction of around 432 reported dengue cases over 10 weeks. In the general working population, an increase of 14.5 dengue cases per age band was observed, which corresponds to a total increase of around 1450 reported dengue cases in the same time period. There is an expected relative risk reduction in dengue transmission for the migrant worker population at 0.635 due to quarantine policy and a relative risk increase for the general working population due to social distancing policies at 0.685. Conclusions Migrant workers experienced a reduced risk of dengue when they were confined to their dormitories as part of the COVID-19 social distancing measures. Our study highlights the vulnerability of migrant workers under normal working conditions.

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Increased Dengue Transmissions in Singapore Attributable to SARS-CoV-2 Social Distancing Measures

Cited by 43 publications

References 12 publications

Shifts in outdoor activity patterns in the time of COVID-19 and its implications for exposure to vector-borne diseases in the United States.

Shifts in outdoor activity patterns in the time of COVID-19 and its implications for exposure to vector-borne diseases in the United States.

SARSeq, a robust and highly multiplexed NGS assay for parallel detection of SARS-CoV2 and other respiratory infections

Decreased dengue transmission in migrant worker populations in Singapore attributable to SARS-CoV-2 quarantine measures

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