Changing Contact Patterns Over Disease Progression: Nipah Virus as a Case Study

Kyu Han Lee (1) , Birgit Nikolay (2) , Hossain Sazzad (3, 4) , M Jahangir Hossain (3, 5) , A Khan (3) , Mahmudur Rahman (3, 6) , Syed Moinuddin Satter (3) , Stuart Nichol (7) , John Klena (7) , Juliet Pulliam (8) , A Marm Kilpatrick (9) , Sharmin Sultana (6) , Sayma Afroj (3) , Peter Daszak (10) , Stephen Luby (11) , Simon Cauchemez (2) , Henrik Salje (2) , Emily Gurley (1)

1 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health [Baltimore]
2 Modélisation mathématique des maladies infectieuses - Mathematical modelling of Infectious Diseases
3 ICDDR,B - International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh
4 UNSW - University of New South Wales [Sydney]
5 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine [Fajara, Gambia]
6 IEDCR - Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research [Dhaka, Bangladesh]
7 CDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [Atlanta]
8 Stellenbosch University
9 UC Santa Cruz - University of California [Santa Cruz]
10 EcoHealth Alliance [New York]
11 Stanford University

Abstract Contact patterns play a key role in disease transmission, and variation in contacts during the course of illness can influence transmission, particularly when accompanied by changes in host infectiousness. We used surveys among 1642 contacts of 94 Nipah virus case patients in Bangladesh to determine how contact patterns (physical and with bodily fluids) changed as disease progressed in severity. The number of contacts increased with severity and, for case patients who died, peaked on the day of death. Given transmission has only been observed among fatal cases of Nipah virus infection, our findings suggest that changes in contact patterns during illness contribute to risk of infection.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Kyu Han Lee, Birgit Nikolay, Hossain Sazzad, M Jahangir Hossain, A Khan, et al.. Changing Contact Patterns Over Disease Progression: Nipah Virus as a Case Study. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2020, 222 (3), pp.438-442. ⟨10.1093/infdis/jiaa091⟩. ⟨pasteur-04095367⟩