Investigation of an acute gastroenteritis outbreak in a school
Objective To explore the epidemiological characteristics,pathogens and transmission risk factors of an acute gastroenteritis outbreak occurred in a school,so as to propose preventive and control measures. Methods Field epidemiology method was carried out.The descriptive epidemiological method was used for analy-zing clinical manifestations and the distribution of the cases,and retrospective cohort study was conducted to find out the cause of this outbreak.Univariate analysis,log-binomial regression model and crossover analysis were further used for statistical analysis.Anal swabs and fecal samples of the patients were collected for laboratory tes-ting.Results A total of 24 cases were reported (all of which were students of the same class),including 9 sus-pected cases and 15 clinically diagnosed cases.The median age was 12 years.The class attack rate was 48.00％(24/50),the difference of attack rate between boys and girls was not significant.The main clinical manifestations of the cases were abdominal pain,diarrhea,and nausea.The first case occurred on October 5,and the second generation of cases began to appear on October 7,indicating a human-to-human+point source outbreak model.The detection results of 38 types of intestinal pathogens in collected anal swabs and fecal sam-ples were negative,and no suspicious pathogens were found by metagenomics next-generation sequencing.Cross-analysis results indicated that playing basketball with cases during physical education classes,without washing hands afterward,was a risk factor for the diarrhea outbreak (RR=8.80,95％ CI:1.88-41.01 ),showing a positive interaction (S=1.088,AP=7.16％,RERI=0.63 ).Conclusion This probably was a diarrhea out-break caused by viral in the school.Avoiding attending classes with illness should be advocated for students,and at the same time good hand hygiene habits should be cultivated.
万方数据
维普
