Chicago man with mild symptoms may have been a coronavirus 'super-spreader' triggering an outbreak that killed three people by going to a funeral, a birthday party and a three-hour dinner
- The community spread of coronavirus in Cook County, Illinois, which infected 16 aged 5 to 86 years old and killed three, can be traced back to one man
- An investigation by the CDC and the Chicago Department of Public Health shows the Chicago man could have been a 'super-spreader'
- The man only ever showed mild symptoms of the virus
- He infected at least 10 people directly when he attended several family gatherings, including a birthday party, funeral and dinner
- Those people then went on to infect others as they attended church services and visited relatives in the hospital, according to the report.
A Chicago man with mild coronavirus symptoms may have unintentionally been a 'super-spreader' triggering an outbreak that killed three people by going to a funeral, a birthday party, and a three-hour dinner.
The community spread of coronavirus in Cook County, Illinois, which infected around 16 people from the age of 5 to 86 years old and killed three, can be traced back to one individual, according to an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Chicago Department of Public Health.
The study, published in the federal agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for April 8, traced the so-called super-spreader's contacts and found the man could have triggered the outbreak, despite only ever showing mild symptoms of the virus.
The man infected at least 10 people directly when he attended several family gatherings, including a birthday party, funeral and dinner, and these people then went on to infect others as they attended church services and visited relatives in the hospital, according to the report.
A Chicago man with mild coronavirus symptoms may have unintentionally been a 'super-spreader' triggering an outbreak that killed three people by going to a funeral, a birthday party and a three-hour dinner, an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Chicago Department of Public Health reveals
'The index patient was apparently able to transmit infection to 10 other persons, despite having no household contacts and experiencing only mild symptoms for which medical care was not sought,' the report says.
Deaths from coronavirus in Cook County, Illinois have skyrocketed to 249 as of Wednesday afternoon and 9,509 have been infected with the highly contagious illness.
According to the contact tracing investigation, a cluster of patients in the Illinois county and three coronavirus deaths can be linked to the man.
In February, the 'index patient' or patient zero in the cluster attended a funeral. He had recently returned from out of state.
The man only had mild respiratory symptoms and only tested positive for coronavirus later as part of the CDC investigation.
The first instance of possible community spread was not identified until February 26. Up to then, the theory was that the virus was contracted by individuals who had either traveled to China or had come into contact with someone who had traveled to China.
The study, published in the federal agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for April 8 (above), traced the so-called super-spreader's contacts and found the man could have triggered the outbreak, despite only ever showing mild symptoms of the virus
The night before the funeral, patient zero shared a three-hour meal with two family members of the deceased.
At the funeral service the following day, he hugged several people and took part in a potluck dinner.
At least four of the people he is known to have hugged developed symptoms for coronavirus over the course of the next six days.
One of the four became seriously ill and was hospitalized on a ventilator and died, the report states.
Another person who was in close contact with the super-spreader at the funeral visited their sick relative with COVID-19 at the hospital and hugged them.
This individual also developed symptoms three days later.
A few days after the funeral, the index case then went to a birthday party with nine family members.
At the party the group talked, hugged, and shared food for three hours.
Within seven days of the party, seven attendees had been struck down with the virus.
Two of them later died from the infection.
Two people who cared for one of the dead victims - a home care worker and a family member - both went on to show symptoms of the virus.
One individual who lived with the other victim also developed a cough.
Three of the partygoers with less severe symptoms of the virus went to a church service six days after the event, where they sat in close contact with other churchgoers for a period of time and passed the offering plate between them spreading the virus further again, according to the study.
The CDC warned that the extent of the spread could actually be far greater than this shows, given that many people who test positive for coronavirus are asymptomatic and do not take tests.
Medical workers at a testing site outside Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago, Illinois
A bicyclist rides past cars lining up for the drive-through testing site in Chicago, Illinois
'Despite intensive epidemiologic investigation, not every confirmed or probable case related to this cluster might have been detected. Persons who did not display symptoms were not evaluated for COVID-19, which, given increasing evidence of substantial asymptomatic infection, means the size of this cluster might be underestimated,' the report says.
This Chicago super-spreader case comes after a New Rochelle lawyer found himself at the center of the New York outbreak when he first fell ill on February 28.
Manhattan attorney Lawrence Garbuz, 50, was dubbed 'patient zero' after infecting multiple family members and neighbors in Westchester, New Rochelle and colleagues in Manhattan after commuting between the two areas of the state.
He was among the first to be diagnosed with coronavirus in New York and passed it on to dozens.
The outbreak prompted New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo to set up a one-mile containment zone in the community where he lived to contain the spread.
The ease with which the outbreak can spread among communities in these cases hammers home the importance of social distancing guidelines, the report points out.
It shows the group 'might have facilitated transmission' of the virus 'beyond household contacts into the broader community,' it reads.
New Rochelle lawyer Lawrence Garbuz, 50, (left) was dubbed a super-spreader after infecting multiple family members and neighbors in Westchester, New Rochelle and colleagues in Manhattan after commuting between the two areas of the state. He was among the first to be diagnosed with coronavirus in New York and passed it on to dozens
New York State Police Troopers are fitted for N95 protective masks in New Rochelle, New York. The outbreak led the state Governor Andrew Cuomo to set up a containment zone in the area
Jeffrey Shaman, a Columbia University epidemiologist whose research on coronavirus has been used by the White House, told the Daily Beast that the delay in implementing social distancing until the first cases of community spread were confirmed in the US will likely have increased the extent of the outbreak.
'The earlier you react to this, the more proactive you are in your response, the more you will contain it,' he said.
'Once the virus gets into a population, it will grow.'
Super-spreaders with mild symptoms - or even no symptoms at all - can be unknowingly dangerous, given the delay between infection and diagnosis, Shaman pointed out.
He explained that if one person is infected they may go through a latent period of three to five days, followed by about one to three days of pre-symptomatic shedding 'where they're contagious but not yet symptomatic.'
In the next three to five days, the infected individual may start showing symptoms and be tested but results could take up to another seven days, he told the Daily Beast.
Shaman suggested that a super spreader could also be behind the outbreak among the choir practice in Washington state that left 45 people infected and two dead.
Shaman said, 'We may be doing enough right now to pull it back down and alleviate the strain on our healthcare systems, but we don't know yet.
More than 1,900 Americans died over 24 hours on Tuesday from coronavirus, bringing the total death toll to nearly 13,000.
There are now more than 400,000 confirmed coronavirus infections across the country.
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2020-04-08 23:45:07Z
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