High Asymptomatic Carriage With the Omicron Variant in South Africa. (30th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Garrett, Nigel; Tapley, Asa; Andriesen, Jessica; Seocharan, Ishen; Fisher, Leigh H; Bunts, Lisa; Espy, Nicole; Wallis, Carole L; Randhawa, April Kaur; Miner, Maurine D; Ketter, Nzeera; Yacovone, Margaret; Goga, Ameena; Huang, Yunda; Hural, John; Kotze, Philip; Bekker, Linda Gail; Gray, Glenda E; Corey, Lawrence
• Is Part Of: Clinical infectious diseases. Volume 75:Number 1(2022)
• Page Start: e289
• Page End: e292
• Publication Date: 2022-03-30
• Subjects: Omicron variant -- asymptomatic carriage -- South Africa -- SARS-CoV-2 -- PWH; Communicable diseases -- Periodicals; 616.905
• DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciac237
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1058-4838

Abstract

Abstract: We report a 23% asymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) Omicron carriage rate in participants being enrolled into a clinical trial in South Africa, 15-fold higher than in trials before Omicron. We also found lower CD4 + T-cell counts in persons with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) strongly correlated with increased odds of being SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive.