In the study, the primary case – the source of infection to the household – was older than 11 and a half years for 79% (66/84) of all secondary cases and for 76%(19/25) of the secondary case under 6 months of age [ 3].
Although the risk for fatal outcome of the secondary case was not as high, based on criteria described by Swanepoel et al. (10), we concluded that ribavirin was effective in the patient, as he recovered rapidly after initiation of the treatment and had a successful immune response.
First, for clusters B7 and B8, occupational exposures, considered as the most likely risk for the index case-patients, were excluded for the secondary case-patients.
Population attributable risk is commonly used to calculate the impact of a risk factor on disease rates, but does not account for the secondary cases produced by each primary infectious disease case.
Calculating the incidence rate for the secondary cases (i.e. those infected within Israel) over the entire period of data collection for each of the age groups, we obtained the following rates per 100,000: 7.5 (0-17.3 17.3 (19-30), 2.9 (31+).
Immunoprecipitation used for antigen detection gave the first evidence for C-CHF infection in the secondary case.
For this reason, in treating the secondary case, we used its oral form.
Results of an epidemiologic investigation and sequence analysis of the virus isolates support person-to-person transmission of ANDV for the 4 secondary case-patients, including nosocomial transmission for the 2 health care workers.
For the secondary analyses, cases were patients with the individual components of the primary study composite endpoint of hypertension, incident heart failure, and all cause mortality.
The second used a PCR assay and was applied for a secondary case hospitalized in a Nephrology ward.
