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A study in a public school system found that younger students had the highest rates of respiratory virus detections compared to older grades, as published in Pediatrics. From November 2022 to May 2023, 816 students and staff in the North Kansas City, Missouri, school system provided 5,981 nasal swab samples and 5,198 monthly symptom surveys for the pre-kindergarten (pre-K) through 12th grade classes for 24.5 weeks. Overall, 85.5% of students and staff had at least 1 virus detected, and 80.4% experienced an acute respiratory infection (ARI). More than 92% of pre-K and elementary students tested positive for a virus compared with 86.3% of middle school students, and 77.6% of high school students, according to analysis in CIDRAP. Multiple viruses in 1 sample were seen in 15.8% of study participants, especially among pre-K and elementary students. The most common virus detected was rhinovirus/enterovirus (65.1%), followed by seasonal coronavirus (29.7%), human metapneumovirus (17.6%), and SARS-CoV-2 (15.2%).Â
Staff situations: More than 76% of participating school system staff had at least 1 virus detected. Staff also had higher SARS-CoV-2 rates than students, and pre-k staff were more likely to have ARIs than other grades’ staff members.