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Volume 23, Number 9—September 2017
Dispatch

Conveyance Contact Investigation for Imported Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Cases, United States, May 2014

Susan A. LippoldComments to Author , Tina Objio, Laura A. Vonnahme, Faith Washburn, Nicole J. Cohen, Tai-Ho Chen, Paul J. Edelson, Reena K. Gulati, Christa Hale, Jennifer Harcourt, Lia M. Haynes, Amy Jewett, Robynne Jungerman, Katrin S. Kohl, Congrong Miao, Nicolette Pesik, Joanna J. Regan, Efrosini Roland, Chris Schembri, Eileen Schneider, Azaibi Tamin, Kathleen Tatti, and Francisco Alvarado-Ramy
Author affiliations: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Main Article

Table 2

Characteristics of passenger and crew contacts during 2 MERS conveyance contact investigations, May 2014*

Contact characteristic Case-patient 1
Case-patient 2†
Total
RUH–LHR,‡ LHR–ORD Crew§ Bus¶ Total LHR–BOS BOS–ATL ATL–MCO Crew§ Total
No. contacts
89
12
10
111

188
158
175
23
544
655
Level of contact, no. (%)
Consented to interview# 63 (71) 12 (100) 5 (50) 80 (72) 134 (71) 136 (86) 139 (79) 23 (100) 432 (79) 512 (78)
Notified, not interviewed** 1†† (1) NA NA 1 (0.9) 2 (1) 9 (6) 2 (1) NA 13 (2) 14 (2)
FPHA notified 22 (25) NA NA 22 (20) 46 (24) 3 (2) 28 (16) 77 (14) 99 (15)
Declined interview 3 (3) NA NA 4 (3.6) 2 (1) NA NA NA 2 (0.4) 6 (0.9)
Unable to contact‡‡
NA
NA
NA
4 (3.6)

4 (2)
10 (6)
6 (3)
NA
20 (4)
24 (4)
Age**
Mean, y 44.1 NA 55.5 44.8 47.8 41.1 35.9 NA 41 41.5
Median, y 47 NA 56.5 48 47 41 37 NA 42 43
Range (Q1–Q3), y 35–55 NA 40.5–70.5 32–56 36–55 31.5–50.5 21–49.5 NA 30–53 30–53
No. unknown
3
12
1
16

9
4
15
23
50
66
Sex, no. (%)**
M 35 (56) 4 (33) 4 (80) 43 (54) 89 (66) 94 (69) 68 (49) NA 251 (58) 294 (57)
F 28 (44) 5 (42) 1 (20) 34 (43) 43 (33) 41 (30) 71 (51) 1 (4) 156 (36) 190 (37)
Unknown
NA
3 (25)
NA
3 (4)

2 (1)
1 (0.7)
NA
22 (96)
25 (6)
28 (5)
Passengers who changed seats, no. (%)§§,¶¶
2 (3)
NA
NA
2 (3)

1 (0.7)
NA
NA
NA
1 (0.2)
3 (0.6)
Consent for serologic testing, no. (%)¶¶
Yes NA NA 4 (80) 45 (56) 91 (68) 116 (85) 101 (73) NA 308 (71) 353 (69)
No NA NA NA 10 (13) 34 (25) 16 (12) 28 (20) 23 (100) 78 (18) 88 (17)
Unknown 12 (100) 12 (100) 1 (20) 25 (31) 9 (7) 4 (3) 10 (7) NA 46 (11) 71 (14)

*FPHA, foreign public health authorities; LHR, London Heathrow Airport (London, UK); BOS, Boston Logan International Airport (Boston, MA, USA); ATL, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (Atlanta, GA, USA); MCO, Orlando International Airport (Orlando, Florida, USA); NA, not applicable; ORD, Chicago O'Hare International Airport (Chicago, IL, USA); Q, quartile; RUH, King Khalid International Airport (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia).
†CDC was not contacted about any US citizens exposed to case-patient 2 on the Riyadh–London flight.
‡Includes 9 US citizens who were passengers on RUH–LHR flight only and 2 US citizens who were passengers on both RUH–LHR and LHR–ORD flights.
§Includes all cabin crew and pilots for all flights.
¶Includes bus driver.
#New denominator used for calculating all passenger demographic information.
**Defined as either a notification sent to FPHA for a contact who was not interviewed while in the United States, certified mail sent to a valid address, voicemail left for a working phone number, or email sent to a valid email address.
††One US citizen with dual citizenship on Riyadh–London flight was notified by CDC but had already been interviewed by authorities in country of residence.
‡‡Unable to locate or contact because of lack of or incorrect contact information.
§§Seat was reassigned if passenger sat in new seat for more than half of flight and could clearly articulate the new seat number or location.
¶¶Denominator includes only contacts who consented to interview.

Main Article

Page created: August 17, 2017
Page updated: August 17, 2017
Page reviewed: August 17, 2017
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