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. 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.

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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

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