Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep;53(3):1345-1348.
doi: 10.1007/s42770-022-00762-w. Epub 2022 Apr 28.

Household transmission of COVID-19 according to index case: children, parents, and healthcare workers

Joseane Mayara Almeida Carvalho  1 , Clarice Neves Camargo  2   3 , Luciano Kleber de Souza Luna  2 , Anna Clara Rabha  3 , Danielle Dias Conte  2 , Roberta Ferreira Mariano  3 , Francisco Ivanildo de Oliveira Junior  3 , Gabriela Rodrigues Barbosa  2 , Luiz Vinicius Leão Moreira  2 , Ana Paula Cunha Chaves  2 , Ana Helena Perosa  2 , Nancy Bellei  2
Affiliations

Household transmission of COVID-19 according to index case: children, parents, and healthcare workers

Joseane Mayara Almeida Carvalho et al. Braz J Microbiol. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

The first SARS-CoV-2 intrafamilial transmission was investigated in China. We evaluated the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in 242 individuals from 60 family clusters, including 30 healthcare workers (HCW) and 30 patients, in São Paulo city. Sixty index cases with COVID-19 were selected, being 30 HCW index cases from Hospital São Paulo (HSP) and its 93 household contacts and 30 index case patients from Hospital Infantil Sabará (HIS) and its 89 household contacts. Asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals participating were tested for COVID-19. The secondary attack rates in the family clusters of HCW and HIS patients were 37.63% and 68.54%, respectively. Considering all households, the transmission from adults to children was 55.4%, while the transmission from children to children was 37.5%. Children were more infected if the index case was an adult, suggesting that children were less competent to transmit. The average time for a household to be COVID-19 positive was 4 and 3 days for HCW and HIS patients. Although HCW have a higher risk of infection and social vulnerability, the secondary attack rate was lower than that observed for HIS patients, possibly because HCW are more aware of transmission risks than the general community.

Keywords: COVID-19; Children; Healthcare workers; Household transmission; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

References

    1. WHO (2021) WHO coronavirus (COVID-19) dashboard: World Health Organization; [Available rom: https://covid19.who.int/. Accessed 14 April 2022
    1. MS. Ministério da Saúde declara transmissão comunitária nacional (2020) [Available rom: https://www.gov.br/saude/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/ministerio-da-saude-dec.... Accessed 21 Sept 2021
    1. Chan JF, Yuan S, Kok KH, To KK, Chu H, Yang J, et al. A familial cluster of pneumonia associated with the 2019 novel coronavirus indicating person-to-person transmission: a study of a family cluster. Lancet. 2020;395(10223):514–523. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30154-9. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kim J, Choe YJ, Lee J, Park YJ, Park O, Han MS, et al. Role of children in household transmission of COVID-19. Arch Dis Child. 2020 doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2020-319910. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Munro APS, Faust SN. Children are not COVID-19 super spreaders: time to go back to school. Arch Dis Child. 2020;105(7):618–619. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2020-319474. - DOI - PubMed