Respiratory Disease Surveillance in the Middle East and Latin America during the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020–2022
Characterizing the epidemiology of circulating respiratory pathogens during the COVID-19 pandemic could clarify the burden of acute respiratory infections and monitor outbreaks of public health and military relevance. The US Department of Defense supported 2 regions for influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infections surveillance, one in the Middle East through US Naval Medical Research Unit EURAFCENT, and another in Latin America through US Naval Medical Research Unit SOUTH. During 2020‒2022, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic, we collected a total of 16,146 nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples from sentinel sites in Jordan (n = 11,305) and Latin America (n = 4,841). Samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and other respiratory pathogens. SARS-CoV-2 was the most frequently detected pathogen during 2020; other respiratory pathogens had distinct temporal and frequency distributions according to geographic location. Our findings support the need for continued sentinel surveillance as a vital tool for assessing the burden of respiratory diseases globally.
Authors
- Julia S. Ampuero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5486-1656)
- Marianela Oré (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2048-4626)
- Tyler D. Moeller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2912-2621)
- William D. Graham
- Mohammad Maayeh
- Rommell Gozalez
- Edward Chávez-Cruzado (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5379-8624)
- Yeny Tinoco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3181-2178)
- María Cecilia Arango
- Kareen Arias
- Carlos Álvarez-Fernández (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2500-074X)
- Mahmoud Gazo
- Tarig Osman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5280-169X)
- María Paula González (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0357-2365)
- Doris Gómez
- Simon A. Levin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8216-5639)
- Mayar M. Said
- Javier Tamayo Jaramillo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5520-9969)
- Daniel Olson
- Miguel M. Cabada (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2545-6197)
- Elizabeth Carrillo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0125-4489)
- Juan Miguel Pascale (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3258-1359)
- Fatima Thneibat
- Víctor Ocaña
- Nicolás Aguayo
- C Romero Delgado
- Mohammad Alhawarat
- Moutasium Hossinate
- Bassem A. Hamdy
- Omar Nowar
Publication Details
- Journal
- Emerging infectious diseases
- Published
- 2024-11-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3201/eid3014.240303
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.79