Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC), Public Health Wales, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.
Pathogen Genomics Unit, Public Health Wales, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2024 Sep 6;19(9):e0309645. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309645. eCollection 2024.
Recent studies suggest an increased risk of reinfection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant compared with previous variants, potentially due to an increased ability to escape immunity specific to older variants, high antigenic divergence of Omicron from earlier virus variants as well as its altered cell entry pathway. The present study sought to investigate epidemiological evidence for differential SARS-CoV-2 reinfection intervals and incidence rates for the Delta versus Omicron variants within Wales. Reinfections in Wales up to February 2022 were defined using genotyping and whole genome sequencing. The median inter-infection intervals for Delta and Omicron were 226 and 192 days, respectively. An incidence rate ratio of 2.17 for reinfection with Omicron compared to Delta was estimated using a conditional Poisson model, which accounted for several factors including sample collection date, age group, area of residence, vaccination and travel status. These findings are consistent with an increased risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant, and highlight the value of monitoring emerging variants that have the potential for causing further waves of cases.
最近的研究表明，与以前的变异株相比，感染 SARS-CoV-2 的奥密克戎变异株的再感染风险增加，这可能是由于其能够更有效地逃避针对旧变异株的特异性免疫、奥密克戎与早期病毒变异株的抗原差异较大以及其改变的细胞进入途径。本研究旨在调查威尔士境内德尔塔变异株与奥密克戎变异株再感染间隔时间和发病率的流行病学证据。截至 2022 年 2 月，通过基因分型和全基因组测序来确定威尔士的再感染病例。德尔塔和奥密克戎的中位再感染间隔分别为 226 天和 192 天。使用条件泊松模型估计奥密克戎与德尔塔相比的再感染发生率比为 2.17，该模型考虑了多个因素，包括样本采集日期、年龄组、居住地区、疫苗接种和旅行状态。这些发现与奥密克戎变异株再感染风险增加一致，并强调了监测可能导致进一步病例浪潮的新型变异株的重要性。
