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 Aug 18:9:933260.
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.933260. eCollection 2022.

Sustained COVID-19 community transmission and potential super spreading events at neglected afro-ecuadorian communities assessed by massive RT-qPCR and serological testing of community dwelling population

Alexander Paolo Vallejo-Janeta  1 , Diana Morales-Jadan  1 , Maria Belen Paredes-Espinosa  1 , Barbara Coronel  2 , Heberson Galvis  2 , Hugo Renato Bone-Guano  3 , Belen Amador Rodriguez  3 , Guadalupe Gomez Abeledo  3 , Byron Freire-Paspuel  2 , Esteban Ortiz-Prado  1 , Ismar Rivera-Olivero  1 , Aquiles Rodrigo Henriquez-Trujillo  1 , Tannya Lozada  4 , Miguel Angel Garcia Bereguiain  1 ; UDLA COVID-19 Team
Collaborators, Affiliations

Sustained COVID-19 community transmission and potential super spreading events at neglected afro-ecuadorian communities assessed by massive RT-qPCR and serological testing of community dwelling population

Alexander Paolo Vallejo-Janeta et al. Front Med (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Background: Neglected ethnic minorities from underserved rural populations in Latin America are highly vulnerable to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to poor health infrastructure and limited access to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) diagnosis. Esmeraldas is a mainly rural province of the Coastal Region of Ecuador characterized by a high presence of Afro-Ecuadorian population living under poverty conditions.

Objective: We herein present a retrospective analysis of the surveillance SARS-CoV-2 testing in community-dwelling population from Esmeraldas carried out by our university laboratory in collaboration with regional health authorities during the first week of October 2020, in a region where no public SARS-CoV-2 detection laboratory was available at that time.

Results: A total number of 1,259 people were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by Reverse Transcription quantitative Polimerasa Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR), resulting in an overall infection rate of 7.7% (97/1259, 95% CI: [6.32-9.35%]) for SARS-CoV-2, up to 12.1% in some communities. Interestingly, community-dwelling super spreaders with viral loads over 108 copies/ml represented 6.2% of the SARS-CoV-2-infected population. Furthermore, anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG serological tests were applied to the same study group, yielding an overall seroprevalence of 11.68% (95% CI: [9.98-13.62%]) but as high as 24.47% at some communities.

Conclusion: These results support active COVID-19 community transmission in Esmeraldas province during the first semester of the COVID-19 pandemic as it has been shown for other rural communities in the Ecuadorian Coastal Region.

Keywords: Afro-Ecuadorian population; COVID-19; Ecuador; Esmeraldas; RT-qPCR; SARS-CoV-2; rural communities; seroprevalence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of esmeraldas province within ecuador. Cantons included in the surveillance carried out during October 2020 and their severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection rates by RT-qPCR.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of viral loads among sexes (A), age ranges (0–14: children, 15–39: young adults, 40–59: adults, 60+: elders) (B) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms status (C) of the individuals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Li X, Wang W, Zhao X, Zai J, Zhao Q, Li Y, et al. . Transmission dynamics and evolutionary history of 2019-nCoV. J Med Virol. (2020) 92:501–11. 10.1002/jmv.25701 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Organización Panamericana de la Salud,. Actualización Epidemiológica: Nuevo coronavirus - (COVID-19) 28 de febrero de 2020 . Available online at: https://www.paho.org/es/documentos/actualizacion-epidemiologica-nuevo-co... (2020) (accessed April 29, 2022).
    1. de Freitas e Silva R, Pitzurra R. What are the factors influencing the COVID-19 outbreak in Latin America? Travel Med Infect Dis. (2020) 35:101667. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Herrera D, Altamirano CT, Gaus D. COVID-19 in Ecuador: imported control strategies without context in a challenged healthcare system. Am J Tropical Med Hygiene. (2021) 104:414–5. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Navarro JC, Arrivillaga-Henríquez J, Salazar-Loor J, Rodriguez-Morales AJ. COVID-19 and dengue, co-epidemics in Ecuador and other countries in Latin America: Pushing strained health care systems over the edge. Travel Med Infect Dis. (2020) 37:101656. 10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101656 - DOI - PMC - PubMed