Journal article
Viral burden is associated with age, vaccination, and viral variant in a population-representative study of SARS-CoV-2 that accounts for time-since-infection-related sampling bias
- Abstract:
- In this study, we evaluated the impact of viral variant, in addition to other variables, on within-host viral burden, by analysing cycle threshold (Ct) values derived from nose and throat swabs, collected as part of the UK COVID-19 Infection Survey. Because viral burden distributions determined from community survey data can be biased due to the impact of variant epidemiology on the time-since-infection of samples, we developed a method to explicitly adjust observed Ct value distributions to account for the expected bias. By analysing the adjusted Ct values using partial least squares regression, we found that among unvaccinated individuals with no known prior exposure, viral burden was 44% lower among Alpha variant infections, compared to those with the predecessor strain, B.1.177. Vaccination reduced viral burden by 67%, and among vaccinated individuals, viral burden was 286% higher among Delta variant, compared to Alpha variant, infections. In addition, viral burden increased by 17% for every 10-year age increment of the infected individual. In summary, within-host viral burden increases with age, is reduced by vaccination, and is influenced by the interplay of vaccination status and viral variant.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011461
Authors
- Publisher:
- Public Library of Science
- Journal:
- PLoS Pathogens More from this journal
- Volume:
- 19
- Issue:
- 8
- Article number:
- e1011461
- Place of publication:
- United States
- Publication date:
- 2023-08-14
- Acceptance date:
- 2023-06-05
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1553-7374
- ISSN:
-
1553-7366
- Pmid:
-
37578971
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
1510173
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1510173
- Deposit date:
-
2023-10-18
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Fryer et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2023
- Rights statement:
- © 2023 Fryer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
- Notes:
- A correction to this article is available online from Public Library of Science at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1011706
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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