ReviewEpidemics2023
Asymptomatic but infectious - The silent driver of pathogen transmission. A pragmatic review.
Review in Epidemics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analysis of Asymptomatic Monkeypox Virus Prevalence in Nonendemic Regions, 2022-2024.Emerging infectious diseases · 2026Pooled it
- Pneumonia in Ghana: prevalence, mortality and antimicrobial resistance-a systematic review and meta-analysis.International health · 2026Pooled it
- Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Generation time in a discrete epidemic model with asymptomatic carriers: beyond geometric waiting times.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2027Article
- Discordant Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 Exposure in Household Contacts.Clinical immunology communications · 2026Article
- Revealing the hidden burden: wastewater-based epidemiology for underreported and emerging infectious diseases in communities.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2026Review
- Modelling the Effects of Treatment Failure on the Minor Outbreak Duration for Carrier-Related Infectious Disease.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Recombinant Potyvirus lilimaculae in asymptomatic Galanthus nivalis: Ecological and evolutionary implications.PloS one · 2026Article
- The Pathology of Viral Infections.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 T cell responses as a function of multiple COVID-19 boosters.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Treatment failure and the threshold of disease extinction.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2025Article
- Retrospective detection of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) revises timeline of emergence in Thailand.Virus evolution · 2025Article
- Observational
- PersistentiScience · 2024Article
- PersistentmedRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- Five Species of Wild Freshwater Sport Fish in Wisconsin, USA, Reveal Highly Diverse Viromes.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Throughout 2020, COVID-19 interventions prioritised symptomatic individuals despite growing evidence of pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission. From the pandemic we have learned that global health is slow to quantify asymptomatic disease transmission and slow to implement relevant interventions. While asymptomatic infectious periods exist for nearly all pathogens, it is frequently ignored during case finding, and there are limited research efforts to understand its potential to drive small scale outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics. We conducted a pragmatic review on 15 key pathogens including SARS-CoV-2 and Ebola to demonstrate substantial variation in terminology around asymptomatic infectious individuals, and varying proportions of asymptomatic amongst prevalent infectious cases (0-99 %) and their contribution to transmission (0-96 %). While no pattern was discernible by pathogen type (virus, bacteria, parasite) or mode of transmission (direct, indirect or mixed), there are multiple lessons to learn from previous and current control programmes. As found during the COVID-19 pandemic, overlooking asymptomatic infectious individuals can impede disease control. Improving our understanding of how asymptomatic individuals can drive epidemics can strengthen our efforts to control current pathogens, and improve our preparedness for when the next new pathogen emerges..
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.