BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80303.
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80303.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 May 25;118(21). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2104547118.
We analyze data from the fall 2020 pandemic response efforts at the University of Colorado Boulder, where more than 72,500 saliva samples were tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) using qRT-PCR. All samples were collected from individuals who reported no symptoms associated with COVID-19 on the day of collection. From these, 1,405 positive cases were identified. The distribution of viral loads within these asymptomatic individuals was indistinguishable from what has been previously observed in symptomatic individuals. Regardless of symptomatic status, ∼50% of individuals who test positive for SARS-CoV-2 seem to be in noninfectious phases of the disease, based on having low viral loads in a range from which live virus has rarely been isolated. We find that, at any given time, just 2% of individuals carry 90% of the virions circulating within communities, serving as viral "supercarriers" and possibly also superspreaders.
我们分析了科罗拉多大学博尔德分校 2020 年秋季大流行应对工作的数据，使用 qRT-PCR 对超过 72500 份唾液样本进行了严重急性呼吸系统综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）检测。所有样本均采集自采集当天无 COVID-19 相关症状的个体。从这些样本中，发现了 1405 例阳性病例。在这些无症状个体中，病毒载量的分布与之前在有症状个体中观察到的情况无法区分。无论症状状态如何，根据从很少分离到活病毒的范围来看，检测到 SARS-CoV-2 呈阳性的个体中约有 50%似乎处于疾病的非传染性阶段。我们发现，在任何特定时间，只有 2%的个体携带社区内循环的 90%的病毒粒子，他们充当病毒的“超级载体”，可能也是超级传播者。
