The surveillance of respiratory pathogens in rural areas of West Africa has, to date, largely been focussed on symptoms. In this prospective study conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we aimed to assess the asymptomatic prevalence of respiratory pathogen carriage in a group of individuals living in a rural area of Senegalese. Longitudinal follow up was performed through monthly nasopharyngeal swabbing during the dry season and weekly swabbing during the rainy season. We enrolled 15 individuals from the village of Ndiop. A total of 368 nasopharyngeal swabs were collected over a one-year period. We investigated the prevalence of 18 respiratory viruses and eight respiratory bacteria in different age groups using singleplex and multiplex PCR. In total, 19.56% of the samples (72/368) were positive for respiratory viruses and 13.60% of the samples (50/368) were positive for respiratory bacteria. Coronaviruses (19/72, 26.39%), adenoviruses (17/72, 23.61%), rhinoviruses (14/72, 19.44%), (17/50, 34%), and (15/50, 30%) were the most frequently detected viruses. Interestingly, the carriage of respiratory pathogens was shown to be more frequent during the rainy season, as pluviometry was shown to be positively associated with the occurrence of respiratory viruses such as influenza ( = .0078, r =.523) and RSV ( = .0055, r =.554). Our results show a non-negligible circulation of respiratory pathogens in a rural area in Senegal (West Africa) with an underestimated proportion of asymptomatic individuals. This study highlights the fact that the circulation of viruses and bacteria in the community has been overlooked.

中文翻译：

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塞内加尔农村无症状病毒和细菌鼻咽携带的季节变化

迄今为止，西非农村地区呼吸道病原体的监测主要集中在症状上。在这项在 COVID-19 大流行之前进行的前瞻性研究中，我们旨在评估居住在塞内加尔农村地区的一群人中呼吸道病原体携带的无症状患病率。通过旱季每月一次鼻咽拭子和雨季每周一次鼻咽拭子进行纵向随访。我们招募了来自 Ndiop 村的 15 人。一年内共收集了 368 份鼻咽拭子。我们使用单重和多重 PCR 调查了不同年龄组中 18 种呼吸道病毒和 8 种呼吸道细菌的流行情况。总共有19.56%的样本（72/368）呼吸道病毒呈阳性，13.60%的样本（50/368）呼吸道细菌呈阳性。冠状病毒（19/72，26.39％）、腺病毒（17/72，23.61％）、鼻病毒（14/72，19.44％）、（17/50，34％）和（15/50，30％）是最常检测到的病毒。有趣的是，呼吸道病原体的携带在雨季期间更为频繁，因为雨量测定法与流感病毒 (= .0078，r = .523) 和 RSV (= .523) 等呼吸道病毒的发生呈正相关。 0055，r =.554）。我们的结果显示，塞内加尔（西非）农村地区呼吸道病原体的循环不可忽视，无症状个体的比例被低估。这项研究强调了一个事实，即社区中病毒和细菌的循环被忽视了。