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Cold outbreaks could become more common as schools reopen for in-person learning, according to a new report from the Centers for Diease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In the report recently published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, the journal of the CDC, researchers looked at school reopens in Hong Kong as an indication of what might happen in the United States when students move away from learning. remotely. Schools in Hong Kong closed due to COVID-19 from late January to May 2020. They reopened briefly but closed in July amid an increase in cases.
However, when schools and daycares reopened in October, cold cases increased among children – despite the mandatory use of face masks and other measures in place to curb the spread of COVD-19.
The researchers suspect that the children were more susceptible to cold-causing rhinoviruses once they returned to the in-person learning because they had spent the majority of the year away from other people outside of their homes. which decreased the number of chances they had to be exposed. to rhinoviruses and ultimately strengthen immunity.
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“A large number of cold outbreaks in schools and daycares in Hong Kong between October and November 2020 resulted in school layoffs nationwide,” they wrote in the report. “Increased susceptibility to rhinoviruses during prolonged school closings and layoffs for coronavirus disease and varying effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions may have increased transmission of cold-causing viruses after resuming school attendance.
The outbreaks – there were 482 reported between Oct. 25 and Nov. 28, according to the CDC – mainly occurred in elementary schools, kindergartens, daycares and kindergartens.
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“The susceptibility of the population to rhinoviruses and other respiratory viruses, including influenza viruses, may have increased over time because people were likely less exposed to viruses when intense social distancing measures, including school layoffs, have been implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This would have increased the potential for transmission when schools resumed, ”the report’s authors wrote, noting that in September, schools in England experienced a similar event. Two weeks after the schools fully reopened, “a substantial increase in the detection of rhinoviruses in adults was recorded, possibly due to transmission in children”.
Researchers are unsure why cold outbreaks occurred despite the wide array of infection control measures in place when the children returned to school.
“Although in general the modes of transmission may be similar for different respiratory viruses, the contribution of each mode to the transmission of a specific virus remains unclear; therefore, the effectiveness of some non-pharmaceutical interventions may differ between viruses. “, they hypothesized. “For example, face masks have been shown to be effective in blocking the release of coronavirus and influenza viruses, but not rhinovirus, in exhaled breath.”
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They also noted that rhinoviruses are more resistant to certain disinfectants than coronaviruses and influenza viruses, which may also help explain outbreaks.
“Our results highlight the increased risk posed by cold viruses in places where schools have been closed or made redundant for long periods of time during the COVID-19 pandemic,” they concluded.
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