Clinical and Epidemiologic Characteristics of Spreaders of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus during the 2015 Outbreak in Korea

Kang, Chang Kyung; Song, Kyoung-Ho; Choe, Pyoeng Gyun; Park, Wan Beom; Bang, Ji Hwan; Kim, Eu Suk; Park, Sang Won; Kim, Hong Bin; Kim, Nam Joong; Cho, Sung-il; Lee, Jong-koo; Oh, Myoung-don

Nonisolated in-hospital days were significantly different among the non-spreader, usual-spreader, and super-spreader groups ( Fig. 2A) . Nonisolated in-hospital days of spreaders were also positively associated with the total number of infected patients, Data shown are number (%). MERS-CoV = Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, aOR = adjusted odds ratio, CI = confidence interval, CXR = chest X-ray, IQR = interquartile range. and the number of infected patients per spreader (R 2 = 0.520 and 0.625; P = 0.068 and 0.034, respectively) (Fig. 2B) . Epidemiologic characteristics of super-spreaders and usualspreaders were not different. However, nonisolated in-hospital days tended to be higher in the super-spreader group (median, 2.0 vs. 7.0 days, P = 0.061). The median number of nonisolated in-hospital days was 1 day in patients who developed symptoms before June 7 and 0 days in patients who developed symptoms after that date (IQR, 0 to 3 vs. 0 to 1 day, P = 0.001) (Fig. 1B , Supplementary Table 1 ). Days from symptom onset to diagnosis were also significantly different between these groups (mean, 7.5 vs. 4.6, P < 0.001) (Fig. 1C, Supplementary Table 1 ).