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Review
. 2021 Nov 24;13(12):2354.
doi: 10.3390/v13122354.

Emerging Trends in the Epidemiology of COVID-19: The Croatian 'One Health' Perspective

Tatjana Vilibic-Cavlek  1   2 , Vladimir Stevanovic  3 , Diana Brlek-Gorski  4 , Ivana Ferencak  1 , Thomas Ferenc  5 , Magdalena Ujevic-Bosnjak  4 , Irena Tabain  1 , Natasa Janev-Holcer  4   6 , Ivana Perkovic  4 , Mario Anticevic  4 , Barbara Bekavac  4 , Bernard Kaic  7 , Anna Mrzljak  2   8 , Marin Ganjto  9 , Ljiljana Zmak  10 , Maja Mauric Maljkovic  11 , Pavle Jelicic  4 , Lovro Bucic  4 , Ljubo Barbic  3
Affiliations
Review

Emerging Trends in the Epidemiology of COVID-19: The Croatian 'One Health' Perspective

Tatjana Vilibic-Cavlek et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

During the four pandemic waves, a total of 560,504 cases and 10,178 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in Croatia. The Alpha variant, dominant from March 2021 (>50% of positive samples), was rapidly replaced by Delta variants (>90%) by August 2021. Several seroprevalence studies were conducted in different populations (general population, children/adolescents, professional athletes, healthcare workers, veterinarians) and in immunocompromised patients (hemodialysis patients, liver/kidney transplant recipients). After the first pandemic wave, seroprevalence rates of neutralizing (NT) antibodies were reported to be 0.2-5.5%. Significantly higher seropositivity was detected during/after the second wave, 2.6-18.7%. Two studies conducted in pet animals (February-June 2020/July-December 2020) reported SARS-CoV-2 NT antibodies in 0.76% of cats and 0.31-14.69% of dogs, respectively. SARS-CoV-2 NT antibodies were not detected in wildlife. Environmental samples taken in the households of COVID-19 patients showed high-touch personal objects as most frequently contaminated (17.3%), followed by surfaces in patients' rooms (14.6%), kitchens (13.3%) and bathrooms (8.3%). SARS-CoV-2 RNA was also detected in 96.8% affluent water samples, while all effluent water samples tested negative. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in humans, animals and the environment suggests that the 'One Health' approach is critical to controlling COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19; Croatia; SARS-CoV-2; environment; humans; pet animals; variants; wildlife.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
COVID-19 pandemic waves in Croatia (weekly detected SARS-CoV-2 cases, February 2020–November 2021).
Figure 2
Figure 2
SARS-CoV-2 viral load in wastewater at the entrance to the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant of the City of Zagreb (December 2020–February 2021).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha and Delta VoCs detected during the third and fourth epidemic wave in Croatia (February–September 2021).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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