Colonization and transmission of in schools: a citizen science project.
Andries J van Tonder, Frances McCullagh, Hanan McKeand, Sue Thaw, Katie Bellis, Claire Raisen, Liz Lay, Dinesh Aggarwal, Mark Holmes, Julian Parkhill, Ewan M Harrison, Adam Kucharski, Andrew Conlan
Author Information
Andries J van Tonder: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Frances McCullagh: Cottenham Village College, Cottenham, UK.
Hanan McKeand: Cottenham Village College, Cottenham, UK.
Sue Thaw: St Bede's Inter-Church School, Cambridge, UK.
Katie Bellis: Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK.
Claire Raisen: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Liz Lay: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Dinesh Aggarwal: Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK.
Mark Holmes: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Julian Parkhill: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Ewan M Harrison: Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK.
Adam Kucharski: Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Andrew Conlan: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Aggregation of children in schools has been established to be a key driver of transmission of infectious diseases. Mathematical models of transmission used to predict the impact of control measures, such as vaccination and testing, commonly depend on self-reported contact data. However, the link between self-reported social contacts and pathogen transmission has not been well described. To address this, we used as a model organism to track transmission within two secondary schools in England and test for associations between self-reported social contacts, test positivity and the bacterial strain collected from the same students. Students filled out a social contact survey and their colonization status was ascertained through self-administered swabs from which isolates were sequenced. Isolates from the local community were also sequenced to assess the representativeness of school isolates. A low frequency of genome-linked transmission precluded a formal analysis of links between genomic and social networks, suggesting that transmission within schools is too rare to make it a viable tool for this purpose. Whilst we found no evidence that schools are an important route of transmission, increased colonization rates found within schools imply that school-age children may be an important source of community transmission.
