ORCHARDS-AIR Study

ORegon CHild Absenteeism Due to Respiratory Disease Study - Air Surveillance

The purpose of this observational study is to compare the effectiveness of air surveillance and to better understand the relationship between household transmission and viruses detected in the air.

Participants will provide nasal swabs and have an air sample surveillance device installed in their home.

The purpose of ORCHARDS-AIR is to utilize air surveillance in participant homes in conjunction with individually collected nasal specimens to assess their concordance and evaluate the significance of airborne detection with household transmission of common respiratory pathogens such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2.

The researchers postulate that households with documented and probable respiratory pathogen transmission will have higher rates of in-home air surveillance detection. Students with more severe illnesses will be absent more often and spend more time at home, potentially leading to absenteeism being associated with greater air surveillance detections and intrahousehold transmission.

Inclusion Criteria - Students:

• Student attends, or is eligible to attend, a school within the Oregon School District (OSD)
• Study has an illness characterized by at least 2 of 6 acute respiratory infection (ARI)/ILI symptoms (nasal discharge, nasal congestion, sneezing, sore throat, cough, fever) and student scores at least 2 points on the Jackson scale

Exclusion Criteria - Students:

• Household member listed on Wisconsin Department of Corrections Sex Offender Registry
• Illness onset more than 7 days before anticipated time of specimen collection
• Anatomical defect for which nasal specimen collection is contraindicated
• Student participated too recently (<7 days from day 14 during peak influenza / COVID-19 period and <30 days during other times, as determined by a medically-attended surveillance program)

Inclusion Criteria - Household member:

• Live in the same household as eligible student participant
• Any age and gender
• Fluent in English
• Able to provide appropriate consent or assent