Abstract
Background: No evidence has so far proven a significant role of schools in SARS-CoV-2 transmission, while the negative effects of their closure on children and adolescents are well documented. Surveillance, by means of frequent students and staff testing, has been advocated in order to implement school safety. Our aim was to report the results of a school surveillance program for the early detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pre- and asymptomatic subjects, by means of molecular salivary testing (MST). Methods: School surveillance in two schools in Milan, Italy, was carried out for six weeks. Each participant received a saliva collection kit, to be self-performed. Results: 401 students and 12 teachers were enrolled, and 5 positive children in 5 different classes were observed. All the cases were asymptomatic. Their nasopharyngeal swab was positive on the same day in four cases, while in one case it resulted negative on the same day and positive 3 days later. In one positive case, the whole family was set under surveillance. The positive child did not develop symptoms and no family member was infected. Conclusions: MST might represent an efficient way to actively survey communities in order to detect asymptomatic cases, thus limiting SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
Highlights
Taking reasonable decisions concerning when and how to open and close schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been an issue worldwide
The results of the present study show that molecular salivary testing (MST) can be a well-tolerated, precise, simple, cheap and useful tool for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children, and for active school surveillance
Our results are in agreement with those by Wyllie et al (2020) [13], who reported that MST seems to be indicated for the early detection of pre- and asymptomatic subjects, even before the molecular nasopharyngeal swab (MNPS) is able to identify a positivity
Summary
Taking reasonable decisions concerning when and how to open and close schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been an issue worldwide. For example, predicted a 2 to 4% death reduction, thanks to school closures, but so far the actual benefits of such measure on death control are not documented [6] It is not yet clear how children may affect or be affected by the SARS-CoV-2 infection [7]. No evidence has so far proven a significant role of schools in SARS-CoV2 transmission, while the negative effects of their closure on children and adolescents are well documented. Our aim was to report the results of a school surveillance program for the early detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pre- and asymptomatic subjects, by means of molecular salivary testing (MST). Conclusions: MST might represent an efficient way to actively survey communities in order to detect asymptomatic cases, limiting SARS-CoV-2 transmission
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