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Keywords: Omicron; SARS-CoV-2 variant; spreading; importations EN Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant spreading importations 1 3 3 09/21/22 20220801 NES 220801 South Africa (SA) first detected the B.1.1.529 SARS-CoV-2 variant from a specimen collected on 9 November 2021 and reported the variant to the World Health Organization (WHO) on 24 November 2021.[1] Two days later, the WHO named the variant Omicron and classified it as a variant of concern (VOC) because of increasing detections in SA and large number of mutations in the immunogenic regions of the spike protein.[1] In addition to increasing cases in SA, the new variant may have been prevalent in other locations in southern Africa. If the sequences we analysed were disproportionately sampled from regions of SA in which the Omicron variant first emerged, then we may overestimate the relative frequency of Omicron across all of SA. [Extracted from the article]

Background: We estimated the household secondary infection risk (SIR) and serial interval (SI) for influenza transmission from HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected index cases.Methods: Index cases were the first symptomatic person in a household with influenza-like illness, testing influenza positive on real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR). Nasopharyngeal swabs collected from household contacts every 4 days were tested by rRT-PCR. Factors associated with SIR were evaluated using logistic regression.Results: We enrolled 28 HIV-infected and 57 HIV-uninfected index cases. On multivariable analysis, HIV-infected index cases were less likely to transmit influenza to household contacts (odds ratio [OR] 0.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.1-0.6; SIR 16%, 18/113 vs 27%, 59/220). Factors associated with increased SIR included index age group 1-4 years (OR 3.6; 95% CI, 1.2-11.3) and 25-44 years (OR 8.0; 95% CI, 1.8-36.7), and contact age group 1-4 years (OR 3.5; 95% CI, 1.2-10.3) compared to 5-14 years, and sleeping with index case (OR 2.7; 95% CI, 1.3-5.5). HIV infection of index case was not associated with SI.Conclusions: HIV-infection was not associated with SI. Increased infectiousness of HIV-infected individuals is likely not an important driver of community influenza transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]