Zuo H, Hu ZB, Zhu F. Risk of group aggregative behavior during COVID-19 outbreak: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2021; 9(1): 170-174 [PMID: 33511181 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i1.170]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Feng Zhu, MD, PhD, Director, Senior Scientist, Technician, Central Laboratory, Guangzhou Occupation Disease Preventive and Treatment Centre, No. 1 Tianqiang Street, West Huangpu Road, Guangzhou 510620, Guangdong Province, China. chifengzhu@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Jan 6, 2021; 9(1): 170-174 Published online Jan 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i1.170
Risk of group aggregative behavior during COVID-19 outbreak: A case report
Hui Zuo, Zhi-Bing Hu, Feng Zhu
Hui Zuo, Infection Control and Administration, Guangzhou Twelfth People’s Hospital, Guangzhou 510620, Guangdong Province, China
Zhi-Bing Hu, Molecular Epidemiology Research Group, Guangzhou Twelfth People’s Hospital, Guangzhou 510620, Guangdong Province, China
Feng Zhu, Central Laboratory, Guangzhou Occupation Disease Preventive and Treatment Centre, Guangzhou 510620, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Zuo H collected and analyzed the data; Hu ZB drafted the article; Zhu F conceived of and designed the study, acquired the funding, and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported byThe Guangzhou Science and Technology Program Key Projects, No. 201704030132.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from each individual presented herein, for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to this study or its publication.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Feng Zhu, MD, PhD, Director, Senior Scientist, Technician, Central Laboratory, Guangzhou Occupation Disease Preventive and Treatment Centre, No. 1 Tianqiang Street, West Huangpu Road, Guangzhou 510620, Guangdong Province, China. chifengzhu@hotmail.com
Received: March 30, 2020 Peer-review started: March 30, 2020 First decision: September 24, 2020 Revised: October 2, 2020 Accepted: November 21, 2020 Article in press: November 21, 2020 Published online: January 6, 2021 Processing time: 277 Days and 10 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
At the end of 2019, a new epidemic of viral pneumonia emerged in China and was determined to be caused by a novel coronavirus, which was named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization. The epidemic quickly spread, causing a worldwide pandemic. Scientists and clinicians across the globe have shifted their research efforts towards understanding the virus itself and its epidemiology.
CASE SUMMARY
In mid-January 2020, a Chinese family made a visit to a local city, and within the next 2 wk one after another fell ill with COVID-19. At the beginning of their first illness onset, the family had eaten in a restaurant, which led to the subsequent illness onset in another two families. All cases were diagnosed as COVID-19 by real-time fluorescent reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Epidemiological investigation showed that the transmission chain was complete.
CONCLUSION
This chain of social exposure highlights the danger of group aggregative behavior for spread of COVID-19.
Core Tip: Since its first emergence at the end of 2019, we have gained limited knowledge about the coronavirus disease 2019 and its epidemiology. We investigated a group of aggregated cases, diagnosed by viral genetic testing (real-time fluorescent reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction), and characterized the epidemic characteristics of spread for such. The findings provide strong evidence for controlling human social behaviors to help mitigate the virus’s threat to human health.
