Coronavirus COVID-19 ‘superspreaders’ are emerging as the lepers of the 21st century
Posted on July 28th, 2020
By Rebecca Armitage, Lucia Stein Courtesy ABC News
With governments around the world actively pursuing contact tracing of COVID-19 cases, it’s becoming more common to see a certain term emerge around specific clusters.
The people at the centre of these outbreaks are being called superspreaders — which has been loosely interpreted to mean an individual responsible for infecting a high number of others with a virus.
While science suggests some people are more infectious than others, history has taught us that society often treats these individuals during disease outbreaks as outcasts and lepers.
It was the case for Typhoid Mary, who was forced to spend nearly three decades in isolation in the US after she was blamed for several outbreaks in New York from the turn of the century.
But while that may have been a true case of a superspreader, more recently the term has been used to broadly label someone considered to be at the centre of a larger outbreak.
In many cases they have been the villains of the COVID-19 pandemic. You’ve probably read about some of the stories.
There was the case in South Korea where an alleged “superspreader” was dubbed a “public harm auntie” by locals after it was reported that she spread the disease to dozens of people who attended religious services at her church.
And in India, there was controversy early on around a preacher who died of COVID-19. He was dubbed a superspreader after 19 of his relatives tested positive.
Certainly it appears as if both individuals didn’t follow appropriate public safety measures, but some experts have raised concerns about whether one person can truly be responsible for a large outbreak.
“We have this tendency to scapegoat a population or individuals,” said Dr Diego Silva, a lecturer in bioethics at the University of Sydney.
“Why that’s the case, whether it’s fear or ignorance, I’m not entirely sure, but certainly in the case of politicians, they’re using it to further their agendas.
“We are definitely seeing that in the context of COVID-19.”
It was no surprise then that a similar story began to emerge in Sri Lanka, where nearly half of the country’s coronavirus cases have been blamed on one man.
As the country’s infection rate spiralled in April, ‘Patient 206’ was slammed by the government as an irresponsible superspreader on television and social media.
The criticism was swift as further details came to light. Patient 206 was accused of infecting 1,100 people — including 900 sailors — when he robbed houses to support his heroin addiction.
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But then the accused superspreader came forward and cast doubt on the Government’s claims.
“I can’t accept that I am responsible for infecting so many, including the navy sailors,” 33-year-old Prasad Dinesh said.
It is not clear if Mr Dinesh is actually more infectious than others.
But he says he makes a useful scapegoat for a government that has regularly demonised drug users.
How coconut robberies allegedly started the spread
According to local authorities, on April 5 Mr Dinesh was caught by village residents for a robbery and handed over to police.
While he was at the station, police said they noticed he had a fever as well as a leg injury sustained during the robbery.
He was admitted at a nearby hospital, where he tested positive for the coronavirus and stayed for 31 days.
AP reports that Mr Dinesh hasn’t contested charges that he and the others he was with broke into a house in a nearby village to take coconuts they could sell in order to buy heroin.
Once he had tested positive, those associated with the arrest — including the police involved and Mr Dinesh’s friends — as well as more than 100 people in his neighbourhood were ordered to quarantine at home.
Amid concerns not everyone was following the rules, Sri Lanka sent in a navy team to the outbreak area.For the latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic follow our live updates.
It sparked a panic among some of Mr Dinesh’s associates — some of whom reportedly tried to climb fences and trees when the sailors arrived.
AP has reported that of the 28 people seized from the community and quarantined, 16 tested positive. Two weeks later, some sailors involved in the operation did, too.
It took more than one man to spread the virus
According to the World Health Organisation, the problem with using the term superspreaders in these situations is that it puts the blame on the person.
“[It is] the circumstances and the situation that makes transmission exist, not the person,” spokesperson Sylvie Briand said.
In the Sri Lankan case, questions have been raised over whether the navy were equipped to handle tracing COVID-19 cases.
Navy spokesperson Lieutenant Commander Isuru Suriyabandara has defended the navy, saying troops were well-trained and wore protective gear. He said the group were quarantined for 21 days after the operation.
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On April 22, the first infected sailorwas reported. He was on leave in the town of Polonnaruwa, about 225 kilometres northeast of Colombo, prompting health officials to isolate 12 nearby villages.
The next day, 30 other sailors tested positive.
In response, authorities ordered troops from all arms of the military to report back to their camps.
Some 4,000 navy sailors were quarantined inside a single camp, while more than 200 relatives were taken to navy-run quarantine centres.
At least 15 villages were isolated in different parts of Sri Lanka for about two weeks, and about 1,300 other people underwent self-quarantine.
Stay up-to-date on the coronavirus outbreak
Ultimately, about 900 navy sailors tested positive, with around 50 other infected people also part of that cluster.
Two other clusters also blamed on Mr Dinesh had at least 150 coronavirus cases, according to authorities.
But given how things unfolded, experts have suggested this is more likely a result of a superspreading event rather than one person.
Experts concerned with how superspreaders are treated
Mr Dinesh is not the only person who has been personally blamed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Ms Briand warned back in February that calling people superspreaders puts them at risk of stigma.
While social pressure from public health officials and the media might encourage people to stay home, experts say COVID-19 shame could dissuade people from being tested.
“We know from previous infectious diseases that people often defy public health orders, not because they’re malicious, but because they have other issues at play, like needing to feed their family and pay their rent,” Dr Silva said.
Dr Silva said we all have a shared responsibility during a pandemic to practice social distancing and stay home when sick.
But he warned against singling out individuals who have fallen ill and unknowingly passed on the disease.
“Responsibility should be shared in a pandemic, and I think it’s very dangerous — especially when it’s an airborne virus — to blame one person,” he said.