scholarly journals Clinico-epidemiological profile of COVID-19 among health care workers from a tertiary care hospital

Author(s):  
Anuradha Tolpadi ◽  
Abhijeet Mane ◽  
Jitendra Oswal ◽  
Sujata Rege ◽  
Meera Modak ◽  
...  

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global health issue. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are especially vulnerable to infection by SARS-CoV-2. The present study was conducted to determine the proportion of HCWs infected with COVID 19 in a tertiary care centre with emphasis on the epidemiological and clinical aspectMethods: HCWs (symptomatic and asymptomatic contacts) who tested positive for COVID-19 by SARS-CoV-RTPCR or COVID-19 rapid antigen test were included in the study. Demographic and clinical data of the infected HCWs was obtained through a detailed telephonic interview with structured questionnaire.Results: Out of total 921 HCWs tested for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR and Rapid antigen test), 323 (35%) HCWs were positive. Proportion of COVID-19 positive HCWs among all HCWs was 13.67% (323/2362). Most COVID-19 positive HCWs (88%) were symptomatic. Majority of infected HCWs (62.23%) were between the age group of 21-30 years. Nurses were the most predominantly affected among various categories of HCWs (42.41%). Fever was the most common presenting symptom, seen in 160 (49.50%) HCWs. Comorbidities were found in 28 (8.66%) of infected HCWs. Majority of HCWs (86%) suffered from mild infection.Conclusions: HCWs, especially nurses, face a high risk of COVID-19 infection while providing care for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients. It is important to characterize the epidemiological and clinical profile of HCWs regarding COVID-19 for formulation of prevention and management strategies.

Author(s):  
Krishnakant N. Bhatt ◽  
Amit Gamit ◽  
Ashish Patel ◽  
Kalpesh Gohel ◽  
Shiv Pujari ◽  
...  

Background: The COVID-19 outbreak affected 215 countries worldwide and was declared global COVID-19 pandemic on 11th March 2020 by WHO. Healthcare workers (HCWs) in India are faced with an incredibly high number of patients per worker and because of high infectivity of COVID-19, having higher chances of getting COVID-19 infection. The objective of the study was the risk categorization of HCWs and provide recommendation for HCWs exposed to COVID-19 based on risk categorization.Methods: After obtaining informed and valid consent from HCWs based on standard WHO questionnaire HCW, who were exposed to COVID-19 were identified and categorised in to high risk and low risk health worker. Those who were at high risk of getting COVID-19 were advised quarantine for 14 days and rt pcr for Covid-19.Results: Out of 200 participants, 51% were male and 49% were female with the majority of them being in the age group of 18-28 (40%). Out of 200, 190 (95%) were exposed to COVID-19. Majority of HCWs who were having high risk of getting COVID-19 infection were young between age group of 18-28 (66,39.7%, p :0.091), male (91,59.6%, p<0.001), doctors (119, 80.9%, p<0.001).Conclusions: Young male doctors were more prone to get COVID-19 infection. It is important to protect HCWs from getting COVID-19 infections by taking various fundamental preventive measures like wearing proper PPE kits and adherence to strict hand hygiene.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Anjali Sharma ◽  
Manju Kumari ◽  
Heena Heena ◽  
Mukul Singh ◽  
Sunil Ranga ◽  
...  

Introduction: COVID-19 is rapidly spreading all over the world and is a major health problem in the current scenario. The aim of this study is to assess the awareness of related to COVID-19 disease among the health care workers. Material and methods: This is an online questionnaire based study comprising of 24 questions related to COVID-19 and included 89 health care workers. The responses were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: There were 50 females and 39 males. Among these 35 were trained and 54 were untrained. On analysis we found that females (96.0%) were more aware than males (92.3%). The response of trained persons were more accurate than those of untrained but was not significant (p=0.98). The most aware age group was 51-60 and most aware department was blood bank followed by microbiology. Conclusion: Awareness and preparedness of healthcare workers is low regarding the coronavirus infection. There is need of urgent effective interventions and training programs for various healthcare workers.


Author(s):  
Kalpana Sharma ◽  
Abhilasha Goswami ◽  
S. M. Sarun

AbstractTo study the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on patient load in a tertiary care centre and the innovations and methods used to improve the safety of the healthcare workers, to provide adequate treatment in the department of Otorhinolaryngology. This study was conducted in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, at a tertiary care hospital centre in North-East India. This study included data collected from the patient registers maintained in our department, and included data over a 4-month period, from April, 2020 to July, 2020. Age, gender, place of residence, clinical diagnosis and the operative procedure performed were included in the data profile for analysis. The above-mentioned registers were also reviewed to retrieve details about the rate of admission during the study period in the previous year. Data was collected and represented, in both descriptive and tabular forms, after proper statistical analysis. We found out that there is a drastic reduction in number of patients attending in our department of Otorhinolaryngology during this COVID-19 pandemic. Certain innovative methods for protecting healthcare workers from viral transmission were put into our practice based on the peer reviewed articles, from June, 2020 and the rate of elective procedures and in-patient admissions were thus increased. Knowledge of new innovative methods in Otorhinolaryngology will help overcome the difficulties faced during the current COVID-19 pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit K Saini ◽  
Prasan Kumar Panda ◽  
Yogesh Arvind Bahurupi ◽  
Balram Omar ◽  
Akhil T ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The number of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections is vastly underestimated. In this context, Seroprevalence surveys are of utmost importance to assess the proportion of the population that has already developed antibodies against the virus and might potentially be protected against subsequent infection. Health care workers face greater risk of developing SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, present retrospective study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 among healthcare workers at tertiary care institute, Uttarakhand. Material and Methods : Data was gathered from Hospital records of 704 healthcare workers admitted at COVID 19 Unit and attended Covid-OPD of tertiary care institute, Uttarakhand in-between 15th July to 14th Aug 2020. Result: Out of the 704 recruited participants, 14 (1.99%) were seropositive for IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. The cumulative prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection (presence of antibodies or past or current positive RT-PCR) was 4.40%. Conclusion: The present study shows a low prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies among health care workers. In addition, posting in COVID-19-positive areas was not associated with increased seropositivity. More studies are warranted to assess IgG/IgM antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 among those HCW who are exposed to COVID-19 patients.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sushila Kataria ◽  
Rashmi Phogat ◽  
Pooja Sharma ◽  
Vikas Deswal ◽  
Sazid Alam ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundSARS-CoV-2 infection has severely ravaged health systems, economic and social progress globally in 2020. Seroprevalence studies can provide relevant information on the target populations for vaccination. They are relevant not only in the community, but also for critical population subgroups such as nursing homes or health care facilities. They will assist in strategizing the vaccination policy especially since there is limited availability of the vaccine and vaccine hesitancyObjectiveTo evaluate the seroprevalence in Health Care Workers (HCW) at our hospital and to identify parameters which may affect it.MethodologyThe Baseline profiling and seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was assessed among 3258 healthcare workers (HCWs) of Medanta-The Medicity, Gurugram, Haryana, India, as a part of an ongoing cohort study.The fully automated LIAISON® SARS-CoV-2 S1/S2 IgG test using the chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) for the quantitative determination of anti-S1 and anti-S2 specific IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 was used to test serum samples collected before the receipt of the vaccine. Seroprevalence was evaluated as per gender, age, association with previous Covid-19 diagnosis, use of supplements, and role in the hospital and type of exposure.ResultsOf the 3258 participants tested for IgG serology (S1 and S2 proteins) 46.2% (CI 44.4 – 47.9%) were positive (i.e. had an antibody titre more than 15 Au/ml). Higher seroprevalence was seen in the ‘others’ ie non clinical health care workers (including management, research personnel, pharmacists, technicians, general duty staff, housekeeping, security, food and beverage, and facility maintenance teams) (50.2 Au/ml) than that in clinical HCW (ie doctors and nurses)where it was significantly lower (41.4 Au/ml, p= 0.0001). Also, people with history of Covid-19 were found to have significantly higher antibody levels (p = 0.0001). Amongst the healthcare workers, doctors and nurses had higher relative risk of acquiring Covid-19 infection (RR = 1.21; 95% C.I.: 1.12 - 1.31).ConclusionSeroprevalence in healthcare workers at our hospital is high at 46.2%. It is higher in non-clinical HCW than in clinical HCW. The risk of acquiring Covid-19 infection was higher in clinical HCW and thus, this subgroup may benefit most from vaccination. History of Covid-19 may provide double the protection, in particular in those who had it recently.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalpana Sharma ◽  
Abhilasha Goswami ◽  
Sarun S M

Abstract Aims-To study the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on patient load in a tertiary care centre and the innovations and methods used to improve the safety of the healthcare workers, to provide adequate treatment in the department of Otorhinolaryngology.Materials and methods-This study was conducted in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, at a tertiary care hospital centre in North-East India. This study included data collected from the patient registers maintained in our department, and included data over a 4-month period, from April, 2020 to July, 2020. Age, gender, place of residence, clinical diagnosis and the operative procedure performed were included in the data profile for analysis. The above-mentioned registers were also reviewed to retrieve details about the rate of admission during the study period in the previous year. Data was collected and represented, in both descriptive and tabular forms, after proper statistical analysis.Results-We found out that there is a drastic reduction in number of patients attending in our department of Otorhinolaryngology during this COVID-19 pandemic. Certain innovative methods for protecting healthcare workers from viral transmission were put into our practice based on the peer reviewed articles, from June,2020 and the rate of elective procedures and in-patient admissions were thus increased.Conclusion- Knowledge of new innovative methods in Otorhinolaryngology will help overcome the difficulties faced during the current COVID-19 pandemic.


2021 ◽  
pp. 216507992110453
Author(s):  
Adeviyye Karaca ◽  
Mehmet Akçimen ◽  
Hatice Özen

Background Nasopharyngeal (NP) and oropharyngeal (OP) swab sampling for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) diagnosis may lead to droplet and/or airborne particle transmission and increase the exposure risk for health care workers (HCWs). However, there is limited evidence for effective methods to reduce occupational exposure from NP and OP swab sampling. This study aimed to reduce droplet-forming responses (DFRs) and the related exposure risk of NP and OP swab sampling by administering 10% lidocaine spray (LS) to the NP and OP areas prior to conducting swab tests. Methods This quasi-experimental study was conducted with 100 patients who presented to our tertiary care hospital with symptoms of COVID-19 between December 1 and 15, 2020. First, NP and OP swabbings were performed on each patient. Thereafter, LS was applied to the OP and NP regions, and the swab samples were taken once again. Frequency of DFRs and real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results before and after LS application were recorded for comparison. In addition, the cycle threshold (Ct) was used as a proxy indicator for SARS-CoV-2 viral load in COVID-19 positive cases. Findings Significant differences in OP DFR frequencies before and after LS intervention were found (37% and 9%, respectively), as well as before and after NP DFR (31% and 18%, respectively). The mean Ct values for the positive samples did not differ before and after applying LS. Conclusion Our results suggest that applying LS to the OP and NP area prior to swab testing reduces DFR frequencies without affecting (RT-PCR) test results for SARS-CoV-2 and may increase patient and practitioner comfort.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 217-225
Author(s):  
Srihita Mahavadi ◽  
Deepika Gujjarlapudi ◽  
Veeraiah Namburu ◽  
Naveed Hassan ◽  
Nageshwar Reddy Duvvur

SARS-CoV-2 (previously called 2019-nCoV), and was named in February 2020 as COVID-19 by the WHO. Estimate the seroprevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in health care workers (HCW) and general population in the first and second wave and assess the pattern of antibody response in HCW with COVID-19 infected and non-infected over pre and post-vaccination. This was a cohort observational retrospective study done to analyse the seroprevalence in HCW from July-September 2020, in the general population in the first wave (December 2020–February 2021) and second wave (March–September 2021). SARS-CoV-2 testing by RT-PCR (QIAGEN Company). Testing for quantitative IgG and IgM (Abbott) antibodies, Total Antibodies (Roche), Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG RBD(Roche), and Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG S1/S2 (Diasorin XL), to assess the pattern of antibody responses categorized as baseline (before the first dose), 14 days after 1st dose, before 2nd dose (45 days post first dose), 14 days post-second dose. Among 1340 HCW, 1268 underwent RT-PCR testing, 540 serology testing and 431 underwent both testing. We identified 164 of 1268 positive RT-PCR and using serology testing 229 of 540 were seropositive. High seropositivity was observed in age group 26-45 years (44.9%) HCW, in males (65.9%), nurses (47.3%), and ward staff (48.6%). High seroprevalence in general population-76.07% in the 2nd wave compared to 1st wave (44.67%). SARS-CoV-2 antibodies showed gender associated seroprevalence and higher immune response was observed in COVID-19 infected than in non-infected HCW pre- and post-vaccination.


Author(s):  
Raja Bhattacharya ◽  
Sampurna Chowdhury ◽  
Anita Nandi ◽  
Rishav Mukherjee ◽  
Manish Kulshrestha ◽  
...  

Background: While several trials are ongoing for treatment of Corona virus 2019 (COVID-19), scientific research on chemoprophylaxis is still lacking even though it has potential to flatten the curve allowing us time to complete research on vaccines.Methods: This retrospective cohort study explores the potential of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a pre- exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19 among 106 health care workers (HCW) exposed to COVID-19 patients, at a tertiary care hospital in India where there was an abrupt cluster outbreak within on duty personnel. HCWs who had voluntarily taken HCQ prior to exposure were considered one cohort while those who had not were considered to be the Control group. All participants with a verifiable high-risk contact history were tested for COVID-19 by RT- PCR.Results: The two cohorts were comparable in terms of age, gender, co-morbidity and exposure. The primary outcome was incidence rates of RT-PCR positive COVID-19 infection among HCQ users and Controls.106 HCW were examined of whom 54 were HCQ users. The comparative analysis of incidence of infection between the two groups demonstrated that voluntary HCQ usage was associated with lesser likelihood of developing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection (4 out of 54 HCW), compared to those who were not on it (20 out of 52 HCW), χ2=14.59, p<0.001. None of the HCQ users noted any serious adverse effects.Conclusions: The study demonstrated that voluntary pre- exposure HCQ prophylaxis by HCWs is associated with a statistically significant reduction in risk of SARS-CoV-2.  


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