1. Emerging Trends in the Epidemiology of COVID-19: The Croatian 'One Health' Perspective.
- Author
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Vilibic-Cavlek, Tatjana, Stevanovic, Vladimir, Brlek-Gorski, Diana, Ferencak, Ivana, Ferenc, Thomas, Ujevic-Bosnjak, Magdalena, Tabain, Irena, Janev-Holcer, Natasa, Perkovic, Ivana, Anticevic, Mario, Bekavac, Barbara, Kaic, Bernard, Mrzljak, Anna, Ganjto, Marin, Zmak, Ljiljana, Mauric Maljkovic, Maja, Jelicic, Pavle, Bucic, Lovro, and Barbic, Ljubo
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MEDICAL personnel , *SARS-CoV-2 , *EPIDEMIOLOGY , *ENVIRONMENTAL sampling , *COVID-19 pandemic , *MICROBIAL contamination , *COVID-19 - 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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