Household transmission of human metapneumovirus and seasonal coronavirus

• Published in: Epidemiology and infection Vol. 152; p. e90
• Main Authors: Bell, Cristalyne, He, Cecilia, Norton, Derek, Goss, Maureen, Chen, Guanhua, Temte, Jonathan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 2024
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Child, Preschool; Coronavirus; Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology; Coronavirus Infections - transmission; Coronaviruses; Disease control; Disease transmission; Family Characteristics; Female; Households; Humans; Male; Metapneumovirus; Middle Aged; Original Paper; Paramyxoviridae Infections - epidemiology; Paramyxoviridae Infections - transmission; Population studies; Regression analysis; Regression models; Respiratory Tract Infections - epidemiology; Respiratory Tract Infections - transmission; Respiratory Tract Infections - virology; Seasons; Secondary infection; Students; Viruses; Wisconsin - epidemiology; Young Adult; Wisconsin; United States > US; seasonal coronavirus; human metapneumovirus; acute respiratory infections; coronavirus OC43; coronavirus HKU1
• ISSN: 0950-2688; 1469-4409; 1469-4409
• DOI: 10.1017/S0950268824000517

We analyzed data from a community-based acute respiratory illness study involving K-12 students and their families in southcentral Wisconsin and assessed household transmission of two common seasonal respiratory viruses – human metapneumovirus (HMPV) and human coronaviruses OC43 and HKU1 (HCOV). We found secondary infection rates of 12.2% (95% CI: 8.1%–17.4%) and 19.2% (95% CI: 13.8%–25.7%) for HMPV and HCOV, respectively. We performed individual- and family-level regression models and found that HMPV transmission was positively associated age of the index case (individual model: p = .016; family model: p = .004) and HCOV transmission was positively associated with household density (family model: p = .048). We also found that the age of the non-index case was negatively associated with transmission of both HMPV (individual model: p = .049) and HCOV (individual model: p = .041), but we attributed this to selection bias from the original study design. Understanding household transmission of common respiratory viruses like HMPV and HCOV may help to broaden our understanding of the overall disease burden and establish methods to prevent the spread of disease from low- to high-risk populations.