scholarly journals Impact of essential workers in the context of social distancing for epidemic control

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Milligan ◽  
Zachary L. Fuller ◽  
Ipsita Agarwal ◽  
Michael B. Eisen ◽  
Molly Przeworski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Elevated Risk ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Epidemic Control ◽  
Population Impact ◽  
Individual Probability ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Essential Services

AbstractMany governments have responded to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by imposing social policies that restrict interactions outside of the home, resulting in a large fraction of the workforce either working from home or not working. However, to maintain essential services, a substantial number of workers are not subject to these limitations, and maintain many of their pre-intervention interactions. To explore how interactions among such “essential” workers, and between essential workers and the rest of the population, impact disease risk and the effectiveness of pandemic control, we evaluated several models of essential worker interactions within a standard epidemiology framework. The models were designed to correspond to key characteristics of, respectively, cashiers, factory employees, and healthcare workers. We find in all three models that essential workers are at substantially elevated risk of infection compared to the rest of the population, and that increasing the numbers of essential workers necessitates the imposition of more stringent interaction controls on the rest of the population in order to manage the pandemic. However, different archetypes of essential workers differ in both their individual probability of infection and impact on the broader pandemic, highlighting the need to understand and target for intervention the specific risks faced by different groups of essential workers.

scholarly journals Impact of essential workers in the context of social distancing for epidemic control

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0255680
Author(s):  
William R. Milligan ◽  
Zachary L. Fuller ◽  
Ipsita Agarwal ◽  
Michael B. Eisen ◽  
Molly Przeworski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Spread ◽  
Individual Probability ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Essential Services ◽  
Human Costs ◽  
Target Intervention

New emerging infectious diseases are identified every year, a subset of which become global pandemics like COVID-19. In the case of COVID-19, many governments have responded to the ongoing pandemic by imposing social policies that restrict contacts outside of the home, resulting in a large fraction of the workforce either working from home or not working. To ensure essential services, however, a substantial number of workers are not subject to these limitations, and maintain many of their pre-intervention contacts. To explore how contacts among such “essential” workers, and between essential workers and the rest of the population, impact disease risk and the effectiveness of pandemic control, we evaluated several mathematical models of essential worker contacts within a standard epidemiology framework. The models were designed to correspond to key characteristics of cashiers, factory employees, and healthcare workers. We find in all three models that essential workers are at substantially elevated risk of infection compared to the rest of the population, as has been documented, and that increasing the numbers of essential workers necessitates the imposition of more stringent controls on contacts among the rest of the population to manage the pandemic. Importantly, however, different archetypes of essential workers differ in both their individual probability of infection and impact on the broader pandemic dynamics, highlighting the need to understand and target intervention for the specific risks faced by different groups of essential workers. These findings, especially in light of the massive human costs of the current COVID-19 pandemic, indicate that contingency plans for future epidemics should account for the impacts of essential workers on disease spread.

scholarly journals Socioeconomic and Behavioral Correlates of COVID-19 Infections among Hospital Workers in the Greater Jakarta Area, Indonesia: A Cross-Sectional Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 5048
Author(s):  
Adrianna Bella ◽  
Mochamad Thoriq Akbar ◽  
Gita Kusnadi ◽  
Olivia Herlinda ◽  
Putri Aprilia Regita ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Worker ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Hospital Staff ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Household Size ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Hospital Workers ◽  
Behavioral Correlates ◽  
Cross Sectional

(1) Background: because of close contacts with COVID-19 patients, hospital workers are among the highest risk groups for infection. This study examined the socioeconomic and behavioral correlates of COVID-19 infection among hospital workers in Indonesia, the country hardest-hit by the disease in the Southeast Asia region. (2) Methods: we conducted a cross-sectional study, which collected data from 1397 hospital staff from eight hospitals in the Greater Jakarta area during April–July 2020. The data was collected using an online self-administered questionnaire and Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests. We employed descriptive statistics and adjusted and unadjusted logistic regressions to analyze the data of hospital workers as well as the subgroups of healthcare and non-healthcare workers. (3) Results: from a total of 1397 hospital staff in the study, 22 (1.6%) were infected. In terms of correlates, being a healthcare worker (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 8.31, 95% CI 1.27–54.54) and having a household size of more than five (AOR = 4.09, 1.02–16.43) were significantly associated with a higher risk of infection. On the other hand, those with middle- and upper-expenditure levels were shown to have a lower risk of infection (AOR = 0.06, 0.01–0.66). Behavioral factors associated with COVID-19 infection among healthcare and non-healthcare workers included knowledge of standard personal protective equipment (PPE) (AOR = 0.08, 0.01–0.54) and application of the six-step handwashing technique (AOR = 0.32, 0.12–0.83). (4) Conclusion: among hospital staff, correlates of COVID-19 infection included being a healthcare worker, household size, expenditure level, knowledge and use of PPE, and application of appropriate hand washing techniques.

scholarly journals Impact of the experimental removal of lizards on Lyme disease risk

2011 ◽  
Vol 278 (1720) ◽  
pp. 2970-2978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Swei ◽  
Richard S. Ostfeld ◽  
Robert S. Lane ◽  
Cheryl J. Briggs
Keyword(s):  
Lyme Disease ◽  
Disease Ecology ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Host Community ◽  
Deer Mice ◽  
Infection Prevalence ◽  
Alternate Host ◽  
Experimental Removal ◽  
Tick Infection

The distribution of vector meals in the host community is an important element of understanding and predicting vector-borne disease risk. Lizards (such as the western fence lizard; Sceloporus occidentalis ) play a unique role in Lyme disease ecology in the far-western United States. Lizards rather than mammals serve as the blood meal hosts for a large fraction of larval and nymphal western black-legged ticks ( Ixodes pacificus —the vector for Lyme disease in that region) but are not competent reservoirs for the pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi . Prior studies have suggested that the net effect of lizards is to reduce risk of human exposure to Lyme disease, a hypothesis that we tested experimentally. Following experimental removal of lizards, we documented incomplete host switching by larval ticks (5.19%) from lizards to other hosts. Larval tick burdens increased on woodrats, a competent reservoir, but not on deer mice, a less competent pathogen reservoir. However, most larvae failed to find an alternate host. This resulted in significantly lower densities of nymphal ticks the following year. Unexpectedly, the removal of reservoir-incompetent lizards did not cause an increase in nymphal tick infection prevalence. The net result of lizard removal was a decrease in the density of infected nymphal ticks, and therefore a decreased risk to humans of Lyme disease. Our results indicate that an incompetent reservoir for a pathogen may, in fact, increase disease risk through the maintenance of higher vector density and therefore, higher density of infected vectors.

scholarly journals Application of Genetic Studies to Flow Cytometry Data and Its Impact on Therapeutic Intervention for Autoimmune Disease

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Orrù ◽  
Maristella Steri ◽  
Francesco Cucca ◽  
Edoardo Fiorillo
Keyword(s):  
Flow Cytometry ◽  
Autoimmune Disease ◽  
Autoimmune Diseases ◽  
Immune Cell ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Surface Protein ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Human Immune System

In recent years, systematic genome-wide association studies of quantitative immune cell traits, represented by circulating levels of cell subtypes established by flow cytometry, have revealed numerous association signals, a large fraction of which overlap perfectly with genetic signals associated with autoimmune diseases. By identifying further overlaps with association signals influencing gene expression and cell surface protein levels, it has also been possible, in several cases, to identify causal genes and infer candidate proteins affecting immune cell traits linked to autoimmune disease risk. Overall, these results provide a more detailed picture of how genetic variation affects the human immune system and autoimmune disease risk. They also highlight druggable proteins in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases; predict the efficacy and side effects of existing therapies; provide new indications for use for some of them; and optimize the research and development of new, more effective and safer treatments for autoimmune diseases. Here we review the genetic-driven approach that couples systematic multi-parametric flow cytometry with high-resolution genetics and transcriptomics to identify endophenotypes of autoimmune diseases for the development of new therapies.

Covid-19: the role of infection control in protecting the healthcare workersin Viet Nam

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinh Binh Tran
Keyword(s):  
Infection Control ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Viet Nam ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Ministry Of Health ◽  
Work Pressure

Protecting healthcare workers (HCWs) is a top priority in COVID-19 pandemic at this time. HCWs who carry the pathogens will increase the risk of infecting their patients, their colleagues as well as the community. Therefore, HCWs must follow the guidance of preventive measures issued by the Ministry of Health to ensure safety, although that means they have to work under uncomfortable condition. That is the reason why the role of surveillance and assessment the risk of infection is extremely critical. Only with regular and continuous supervision, with instructions and reminders, can HCWs effectively prevent the COVID-19 infection, especially while being under intensity - work pressure of the current situation.

scholarly journals Management of clozapine treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 204512532092816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siobhan Gee ◽  
Fiona Gaughran ◽  
James MacCabe ◽  
Sukhi Shergill ◽  
Eromona Whiskey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Signs And Symptoms ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Full Blood Count ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Clozapine Treatment ◽  
Neutropenic Sepsis ◽  
Blood Assay ◽  
Blood Monitoring ◽  
Increased Risk

Clozapine is the only available treatment for refractory schizophrenia but its use involves frequent physical contact with healthcare workers for the purpose of mandatory blood monitoring. During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients taking clozapine will be self-isolating to reduce the risk of infection, not least because these patients are at high risk of serious illness and fatality because of high rates of diabetes, obesity and pulmonary disease and an increased risk of pneumonia. Problems may also arise because both clozapine-induced myocarditis and neutropenic sepsis share signs and symptoms with COVID-19 (fever, chest pain, dyspnoea, etc.). We recommend decreasing the frequency of physical contacts by extending the blood monitoring interval to 12 weeks in those patients taking clozapine for more than 1 year. To distinguish COVID-19 from clozapine-related physical adverse effects, we suggest an urgent antigen test alongside a full blood count. In those taking clozapine who develop COVID-19, we suggest continuing with clozapine whenever possible (even during ventilation), reducing the dose if necessary in line with blood assay results. Blood monitoring should continue but clozapine should only cease if there is a significant fall in neutrophils (COVID-19 is linked to lymphopenia but not neutropenia). To protect against the likelihood and severity of respiratory infection, we recommend the use of vitamin D in all clozapine patients. Initiation of clozapine is likely to remain problematic while the risk of infection remains, given the degree of physical contact required to assure safety.

Incidence of hepatitis C virus infection among Egyptian healthcare workers at high risk of infection

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayed F. Abdelwahab ◽  
Mohamed Hashem ◽  
Iman Galal ◽  
Maha Sobhy ◽  
Tamer S. Abdel-Ghaffar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hepatitis C Virus ◽  
Hepatitis C ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Virus Infection ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Hepatitis C Virus Infection

scholarly journals Pandemic influenza A(H1N1)pdm09: risk of infection in primary healthcare workers

2013 ◽  
Vol 63 (611) ◽  
pp. e416-e422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Hudson ◽  
Les Toop ◽  
Dee Mangin ◽  
Cheryl Brunton ◽  
Lance Jennings ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Healthcare ◽  
Pandemic Influenza ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Influenza A H1n1

scholarly journals Protecting healthcare workers from SARS-CoV-2 and other infections

2020 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengding Chen ◽  
Xin Wei ◽  
Zhengguang Wang
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Respiratory Diseases ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Tremendous Impact

Abstract Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a tremendous impact in China and abroad since its onset in December 2019 and poses a major threat to human health. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at the forefront of the response to outbreaks. This study reviewed literature data and found that HCWs were at high risk of infection during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially at the early stage of the epidemic, and many factors greatly affected their occupational safety. Although SARS-CoV-2 transmission was controlled in China, the Chinese experience can help protect HCWs from COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.

scholarly journals Regular testing of asymptomatic healthcare workers identifies cost-efficient SARS-CoV-2 preventive measures

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0258700
Author(s):  
Daniel Sanchez-Taltavull ◽  
Violeta Castelo-Szekely ◽  
Shaira Murugan ◽  
Jonathan I. D. Hamley ◽  
Tim Rollenske ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Work Productivity ◽  
Preventive Strategies ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Implementation Costs ◽  
Sources Of Infection ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
Community Infection

Protecting healthcare professionals is crucial in maintaining a functioning healthcare system. The risk of infection and optimal preventive strategies for healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic remain poorly understood. Here we report the results of a cohort study that included pre- and asymptomatic healthcare workers. A weekly testing regime has been performed in this cohort since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to identify infected healthcare workers. Based on these observations we have developed a mathematical model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission that integrates the sources of infection from inside and outside the hospital. The data were used to study how regular testing and a desynchronisation protocol are effective in preventing transmission of COVID-19 infection at work, and compared both strategies in terms of workforce availability and cost-effectiveness. We showed that case incidence among healthcare workers is higher than would be explained solely by community infection. Furthermore, while testing and desynchronisation protocols are both effective in preventing nosocomial transmission, regular testing maintains work productivity with implementation costs.

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