Low prevalence of subclinical severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus infection among hospital healthcare workers in Hong Kong

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) often presents asymptomatically or milder in children compared to adults. The role of young children in the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains largely unknown. In the Netherlands, the first action of loosening the partial lockdown that had been implemented to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission was the reopening of primary schools on 1 May 2020. We subsequently conducted a prospective cohort study among healthcare workers (HCWs) with primary school-attending children versus HCWs without children living at home. We tested each HCW three times for SARS-CoV-2 from May 20 to June 15 2020 at 1-week intervals. In total, 832 nasopharyngeal swabs were taken from 283 HCWs with primary school-attending children living at home and 864 nasopharyngeal swabs from 285 HCWs without children living at home. All nasopharyngeal swabs tested negative for SARS-CoV-2. In our region with a low population density and low SARS-CoV-2 prevalence, reopening of primary schools did not lead to an increase in infections. The results of this study may serve as an example for the implementation of regional strategies to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission in countries with large variations in both population density and SARS-CoV-2 prevalence.

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong in 2003: stress and psychological impact among frontline healthcare workers

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291704002247 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 34 (7) ◽

pp. 1197-1204 ◽

Cited By ~ 187

Author(s):

CINDY W. C. TAM ◽

EDWIN P. F. PANG ◽

LINDA C. W. LAM ◽

HELEN F. K. CHIU

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

General Health Questionnaire ◽

Psychological Impact ◽

Psychological Morbidity ◽

Hospital Administrators ◽

High Level ◽

Frontline Healthcare Workers

Background. The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) posed an unprecedented threat and a great challenge to health professionals in Hong Kong. The study reported here aimed at investigating the origin of stress and psychological morbidity among frontline healthcare workers in response to this catastrophe.Method. Self-administered questionnaires were sent to frontline healthcare workers in three hospitals. The General Health Questionnaire was used to identify psychological distress. Sociodemographic and stress variables were entered into a logistic regression analysis to find out the variables associated with psychological morbidity.Results. The response rate was 40%. Sixty-eight per cent of participants reported a high level of stress. About 57% were found to have experienced psychological distress. The healthcare workers' psychological morbidity was best understood by the perceptions of personal vulnerability, stress and support in the workplace.Conclusion. These findings shed light on the need for hospital administrators to be aware of the extent and sources of stress and psychological distress among frontline healthcare workers during disease outbreak.

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International Tourism and COVID-19: Recovery Strategies for Tourism Organisations

10.20944/preprints202003.0445.v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Wadim Strielkowski

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽

Best Practices ◽

Mainland China ◽

International Tourism ◽

Acquired Immunity ◽

Health Tracking ◽

Recovery Strategies ◽

Coronavirus Infection ◽

Virus Recovery

The coronavirus pandemic will deeply affect the tourism and travel sector. It is already clear now that its economic impact would be more severe that in the case of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003. Although not as deadly as SARS, coronavirus infection has a longer incubation period and leaves about 85% of the infected without any (or with just mild) symptoms which makes it more difficult to track and to contain. Moreover, it appears to be much more contagious than its predecessor. The goods news is that most people recover from the disease and develop antibodies that can protect them from getting infected again (natural vaccination). Those cured might become the key element for the post-virus recovery strategies of tourism organisations. People with the acquired immunity to the virus would be capable of travelling freely without spreading the disease. Airlines, hotels and gastronomy should aim at this group offering them discounts and special offers. However, the problem is how to effectively ensure that everyone who claims to be cured from COVID-19 is telling the truth. Health tracking bracelets, apps, and other advanced technological solutions should be put in place. Recent best practices from Hong Kong, mainland China, or India might be applied.

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SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence among Healthcare Workers in General Hospitals and Clinics in Japan

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18073786 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (7) ◽

pp. 3786

Author(s):

Tatsuya Yoshihara ◽

Kazuya Ito ◽

Masayoshi Zaitsu ◽

Eunhee Chung ◽

Izumi Aoyagi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Support ◽

General Population ◽

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽

Immunoglobulin G ◽

Health Problem ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Public Health Problem ◽

General Hospitals ◽

Second Wave

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a serious public health problem worldwide. In general, healthcare workers are considered to be at higher risk of COVID-19 infection. However, the prevalence of COVID-19 among healthcare workers in Japan is not well characterized. In this study, we aimed to examine the seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies among 2160 healthcare workers in hospitals and clinics that are not designated to treat COVID-19 patients in Japan. The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G was 1.2% in August and October 2020 (during and after the second wave of the pandemic in Japan), which is relatively higher than that in the general population in Japan (0.03–0.91%). Because of the higher risk of COVID-19 infection, healthcare workers should be the top priority for further social support and vaccination against SARS-CoV-2.

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COVID-19 seroprevalence among healthcare workers in a low prevalence region

Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology ◽

10.1017/ice.2020.1374 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Emily J. Godbout ◽

Rachel Pryor ◽

Mary Harmon ◽

Alison Montpetit ◽

Joan Greer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Healthcare Workers ◽

Low Prevalence

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Creation of a specific and separated pediatric intra-hospital pathway in primary level hospitals during the era of COVID-19

European Journal of Inflammation ◽

10.1177/20587392211010897 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. 205873922110108

Author(s):

Marco Manfredi ◽

Pietro Ragni ◽

Giancarlo Gargano

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Care ◽

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Health Agency ◽

Local Health ◽

Primary Level ◽

Level Hospital ◽

Rule Out

Every new pandemic forces us to start new specific behaviors both in the civil life and within the hospitals trying to contain the spreading of the infection and preserve the more fragile people. In this regard, at the debut of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-CoronaVirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, our Local Health Agency had drastically modified every clinical and organizational pathways in order to limit the diffusion of the infection as well as to maintain a good quality of care and preserve healthcare workers. We report how we have modified the usual pediatric intra-hospital pathways in our primary level hospital to avoid mixing children with suspected and non-suspected symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Before every hospitalization, regardless of symptoms, each child and him/her parent/caregiver are undergone to rapid antigenic and molecular swab to rule out a SARS-CoV-2 infection; hence, positive patients are transferred to Pediatric Unit of third level hospital equipped by a Pediatric COVID Intensive Unit. We think the healthcare behaviors described in this manuscript can help to reduce the intra-hospital spreading of SARS-CoV-2, although children seem to have a minimal role in the dissemination, but we cannot let down your guard. Simultaneously we observed that the overall children requiring inpatient pediatric evaluation and hospitalization have dramatically decreased from the beginning of pandemic.

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KI and WU Polyomavirus in Respiratory Samples of SARS-CoV-2 Infected Patients

Microorganisms ◽

10.3390/microorganisms9061259 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 1259

Author(s):

Carla Prezioso ◽

Ugo Moens ◽

Giuseppe Oliveto ◽

Gabriele Brazzini ◽

Francesca Piacentini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Respiratory Pathogens ◽

Threshold Values ◽

Cycle Threshold ◽

Viral Interference ◽

Disease Outcomes ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Wu Polyomavirus ◽

Washington University

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been declared a global pandemic. Our goal was to determine whether co-infections with respiratory polyomaviruses, such as Karolinska Institutet polyomavirus (KIPyV) and Washington University polyomavirus (WUPyV) occur in SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. Oropharyngeal swabs from 150 individuals, 112 symptomatic COVID-19 patients and 38 healthcare workers not infected by SARS-CoV-2, were collected from March 2020 through May 2020 and tested for KIPyV and WUPyV DNA presence. Of the 112 SARS-CoV-2 positive patients, 27 (24.1%) were co-infected with KIPyV, 5 (4.5%) were positive for WUPyV, and 3 (2.7%) were infected simultaneously by KIPyV and WUPyV. Neither KIPyV nor WUPyV DNA was detected in samples of healthcare workers. Significant correlations were found in patients co-infected with SARS-CoV-2 and KIPyV (p < 0.05) and between SARS-CoV-2 cycle threshold values and KIPyV, WUPyV and KIPyV and WUPyV concurrently detected (p < 0.05). These results suggest that KIPyV and WUPyV may behave as opportunistic respiratory pathogens. Additional investigations are needed to understand the epidemiology and the prevalence of respiratory polyomavirus in COVID-19 patients and whether KIPyV and WUPyV could potentially drive viral interference or influence disease outcomes by upregulating SARS-CoV-2 replicative potential.

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Occupational health risk among healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic: actions to limit the risk

Journal of Egyptian Public Health Association ◽

10.1186/s42506-021-00076-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 96 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Eman Casper

Keyword(s):

Occupational Health ◽

Health Risk ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

World Health ◽

High Morbidity ◽

Wuhan City ◽

Coronavirus Infection ◽

Health Organization ◽

Respiratory Droplets ◽

Very High

AbstractThe World Health Organization declared coronavirus infection 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic in March 2020. The infection with coronavirus started in Wuhan city, China, in December 2019. As of October 2020, the disease was reported in 235 countries. The coronavirus infection 2019 (COVID-19) is a disease with high morbidity and mortality. As of February 2021, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally is 102,942,987 and 2,232,233 deaths according to WHO report. This infection is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is a ribonucleic acid (RNA) β-coronavirus. The infection is mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets.Healthcare workers (HCWs) play an essential role at the front lines, providing care for patients infected with this highly transmittable disease. They are exposed to very high occupational health risk as they frequently contact the infective persons. In order to limit the number of infected cases and deaths among healthcare workers, it is crucial to have better awareness, optimistic attitude, efficient PPE, and adequate health practices about COVID-19.

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