Effectiveness of infection prevention and control interventions, excluding personal protective equipment, to prevent nosocomial transmission of SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review and call for action

How have mathematical models contributed to understanding the transmission and control of SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare settings? A systematic search and review

“…Several high-impact randomized controlled trials have nonetheless been successfully conducted in healthcare settings despite these challenges, in particular to evaluate COVID-19 vaccines, therapies and pre-or post-exposure prophylactic agents [68][69][70][71]. However, trials evaluating impacts of common IPC interventions, including surveillance testing, PPE and healthcare reorganization, are scarce [72,73].…”

Evaluation of Screening Program and Phylogenetic Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Infections among Hospital Healthcare Workers in Liège, Belgium

“…Our phylogenetic analysis revealed that most positive samples from HCWs that sequenced in the context of the present study corresponded to independent SARS-CoV-2 introduction events into the hospital. Specifically, we identified a minimum of 35 introduction events into the hospital (95% highest posterior density interval = [36][37][38]) for 45 sequences sampled among HCWs from the hospital (Figure 4 and Figure S1). We estimated that 30 (95% highest posterior density interval = [27][28][29][30][31][32]) out of 45 sequenced HCW positive cases were not directly related to any other HCW sample analysed in our study.…”

“…Time-scaled phylogeny in which we identified phylogenetic clades introduced in the University Hospital of Liège (Belgium) and delineated through a discrete phylogeographic reconstruction along the tree (while only considering two potential ancestral locations: "hospital" and "other location"). We identified a minimum of 35 introduction events into the hospital (95% highest posterior density interval = [36][37][38]) for 45 sequences sampled among healthcare workers (HCWs) from the hospital. On the phylogeny, large red nodes correspond to the most ancestral node of each clade resulting from an introduction event into the hospital.…”

“…Patientfacing HCWs including notably nurses, and HCWs working in COVID-19 units, showed the highest infection rates [4,[6][7][8]10,16,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Protection of patients and HCWs from nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 infection is crucial for the control of the pandemic and justifies the implementation of protection measures including the use of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), isolation, hygiene, and effective ventilation, as well as rapid identification and isolation of infected patients and HCWs [37,38]. Another strategy being considered is the regular screening for SARS-CoV-2 infection of all HCWs through reverse transcriptasepolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays performed on respiratory samples (throat and nasopharyngeal swabs) [7,9,14,36].…”

Under the HAI lens: pandemic learning for research priorities for IPC – a call to action

“…During the pandemic, rapid evidence reviews and living systematic reviews were used to support development of IPC guidance nationally and internationally [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. These reviews identified evidence gaps, which can be summarised as: Fundamental aerobiology and clinical transmission studies , including development of standard techniques for virus distribution and viability in particles; investigation of the contribution of inhalation versus inoculation (fomites) for transmission of respiratory viruses including aerosol-generating procedures.…”