Search

In July 2020, Corinth School District was the first in Mississippi to return to the classroom setting. Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid‐19) protocols were developed to maintain the safety of students. These included mandatory masking, seating charts, desk spacing, sanitizing protocols, lunch within classrooms, alteration of extracurriculars, cancellation of assemblies, and quarantine policies. Temperature screenings were also performed. Students registering as febrile would undergo Covid‐19 testing. To evaluate the efficacy of temperature scanning as a surveillance method for Covid‐19 in the school setting, deidentified data was obtained from the Corinth School District. Overall incidence and grade level incidence of Covid‐19 were calculated in children attending school from July 27, 2020 to September 25, 2020. Data were examined for a correlation between documented fevers and Covid‐19 positivity. Reports provided by the school district were investigated for positive test groupings signifying a school‐related outbreak. Of 28 children with fevers at school, zero tested positive for Covid‐19. Twenty‐six children tested positive for Covid‐19; none were febrile at school. The incidence of Covid‐19 in our population during the study period was 1.03%. Incidence in elementary students was 0.34%, 0.93% in middle school, and 2.51% in high school students. There were no school outbreaks during the study period. Both relative risk and odds ratio were calculated as equal to zero (0.00). Temperature scanning is not a sensitive screening method for Covid‐19 in school children. Key points: In the pediatric population temperature screening was not found to be a reliable means of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid‐19) screening and detection.Fever is often not the primary presenting symptom of Covid‐19 within the pediatric population.Covid‐19 screening and outbreak prevention methods within pediatrics must take into account differing presentations to effectively prevent outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in biosolids destined for use in agriculture has raised concerns about their potential to enter the terrestrial food chain via bioaccumulation in edible plants. Uptake of PFAAs by greenhouse lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and tomato (Lycoperskon lycopcrsicum) grown in an industrially impacted biosolids-amended soil, a municipal biosolids-amended soil, and a control soil was measured. Bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) were calculated for the edible portions of both lettuce and tomato. Dry weight concentrations observed in lettuce grown in a soil amended (biosolids:soil dry weight ratio of 1:10) with PFAA industrially contaminated biosolids were up to 266 and 236 ng/g for perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) and perfluoropentanoic acid (PFPeA), respectively, and reached 56 and 211 ng/g for PFBA and PFPeA in tomato, respectively. BAFs for many PFAAs were well above unity, with PFBA having the highest BAF in lettuce (56.8) and PFPeA the highest in tomato (17.1). In addition, the BAFs for PFAAs in greenhouse lettuce decreased approximately 0.3 log units per CF: group. A limited-scale field study was conducted to verify greenhouse findings. The greatest accumulation was seen for PFBA and PFPeA in both field-grown lettuce and tomato; BAFs for PFBA were highest in both crops. PFAA levels measured in lettuce and tomato grown in held soil amended with only a single application of biosolids (at an agronomic rate for nitrogen) were predominantly below the limit of quantitation (LOQ). In addition, corn (Zea mays) stover, corn grains, and soil were collected from several full-scale biosolids-amended farm fields. At these fields, all PFAAs were below the LOQ in the corn grains and only trace amounts of PFBA and PFPeA were detected in the corn stover. This study confirms that the bioaccumulation of PFAAs from biosolids-amended soils depends strongly on PFAA concentrations, soil properties, the type of crop, and analyte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]