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Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) can cause acute respiratory diseases (ARDs) worldwide, and HAdV‐55 is a reemergent pathogen in recent years. In the study, we investigated an outbreak of ARD at a school due to HAdV‐55 in Beijing, China, during the early outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). The epidemic prevention team was dispatched to the school to collect epidemiologic data and nasopharyngeal samples. Then, real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and multiplex PCR assays were used to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and other respiratory pathogens, respectively. One representative HAdV‐55 isolate was selected and submitted for whole‐genome sequencing using a MiSeq system and the whole‐genome phylogenetic tree was conducted based on the maximum likelihood method. The outbreak lasted from January 27 to February 6, 2020, and 108 students developed fever, among whom 60 (55.56%) cases were diagnosed with HAdV‐55 infection in the laboratory using real‐time PCR and 56 cases were hospitalized. All the confirmed cases had a fever and 11 cases (18.33%) presented with a fever above 39°C. Other main clinical symptoms included sore throat (43.33%) and headache (43.33%). We obtained and assembled the full genome of one isolate, BJ‐446, with 34 761 nucleotides in length. HAdV‐55 isolate BJ‐446 was 99.85% identical to strain QS‐DLL, which was the first HAdV‐55 strain in China isolated from an ARD outbreak in Shanxi in 2006. One and four amino acid mutations were observed in the hexon gene and the coding region of L2 pV 40.1 kDa protein, respectively. We identified the first HAdV‐55 infection associated with the ARD outbreak in Beijing since the emergence of COVID‐19. The study suggests that improved surveillance of HAdV is needed, although COVID‐19 is still prevalent in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salmonella contamination of eggs and egg shells has been identified as a public health problem worldwide. Here, we reported an outbreak of severe gastrointestinal symptoms caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. enteritidis) in China. We evaluated the outbreak by using epidemiological surveys, routine laboratory testing methods, and whole genome sequencing (WGS). This outbreak occurred in a canteen in Beijing, during March 9–11, 2021, 225 of the 324 diners who have eaten at the canteen showed gastrointestinal symptoms. The outbreak had characteristical epidemiological and clinical features. It caused a very high attack rate (69.4%) in a short incubation time. All patients developed diarrhea and high fever, accompanied by abdominal pain (62.3%), nausea (50.4%), and vomiting (62.7%). The average frequency of diarrhea was 12.4 times/day, and the highest frequency of diarrhea was as high as 50 times/day. The average fever temperature was 39.4°C, and the highest fever temperature was 42°C. Twenty strains of S. enteritidis were recovered, including 19 from the patients samples, and one from remained egg fried rice. Antibiotic susceptibility test showed that the 20 outbreak strains all had the same resistance pattern. PFGE results demonstrated that all 20 strains bore completely identical bands. Phylogenetic analysis based on WGS revealed that all 20 outbreak strains were tightly clustered together. So the pathogenic source of this food poisoning incident may was contaminated egg fried rice. Resistance gene analysis showed that the outbreak strains are all multi-drug resistant strains. Virulence gene analysis indicated that these outbreak strains carried a large number of virulence genes, including 2 types of Salmonella pathogenicity islands (SPI-1 and SPI-2). Other important virulence genes were also carried by the outbreak strains, such as pef ABCD, rck and shd A. And the shd A gene was not in other strains located in the same evolutionary branch as the outbreak strain. We speculated that this is a significant reason for the serious symptoms of gastroenteritis in this outbreak. This outbreak caused by S. enteritidis suggested government should strengthen monitoring of the prevalence of outbreak clone strains, and take measures to mitigate the public health threat posed by contaminated eggs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Familial cluster, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, railway journey, Beijing. [Extracted from the article]