Impact of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic among health care workers in a secondary teaching hospital in Spain

Abstract

Background. The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a huge challenge to healthcare systems and their personnel worldwide. The study of the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers, through prevalence studies, will let us know viral expansion, individuals at most risk and the most exposed areas. The aim of this study is to gauge the impact of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in our hospital workforce and identify groups and areas at increased risk. Methods and Findings. This is a cross-sectional and longitudinal study carried out on healthcare workers based on molecular and serological diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Of the 3013 HCW invited to participate, finally 2439 (80.9%) were recruited, including 674 (22.4%) who had previously consulted at the OHS for confirmed exposure and/or presenting symptoms suggestive of COVID-19. A total of 411 (16.9%) and 264 (10.8%) healthcare workers were SARS-CoV-2 IgG and rRT-PCR positive, respectively. The cumulative prevalence considering all studies (IgG positive HCW and/or rRT-PCR positive detection) has been 485 (19.9%). SARS-CoV-2 IgG-positive patients in whom the virus was not detected were 221 (9.1%); up to 151 of them (68.3%) did not report any compatible symptoms nor consult at the OHS for this reason. Men became more infected than women (25% vs 18.5%, p=0.0009), including when data were also classified by age. COVID-19 cumulative prevalence among the HCW assigned to medical departments was higher (25.2%) than others, as well as among medical staff (25.4%) compared with other professional categories (p<0.01). Conclusions. Global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HCW of our centre has been 19.9%. Doctors and medical services personnel have had the highest prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but many of them have not presented compatible symptoms. This emphasizes the performance of continuous surveillance methods of the most exposed health personnel and not only based on the appearance of symptoms.

Seven-month kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and role of pre-existing antibodies to human coronaviruses

“…We show a cumulative prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection of 19.6% (95% CI 16.4-23.0%) after six months of follow-up (October 2020). The cumulative prevalence around May 2020, corresponding to our second visit (M1), recalculated here with a wider antigen panel, was 16.8% (CI 95% 13.8-20.1%), similar to other studies in Spanish HCW that ranged between 10.5 and 19.9% [43][44][45] . Around 28% of the total infections detected throughout the follow-up were newly diagnosed after the first visit (M0), which would reveal that infections in the hospital setting mostly happened within the first pandemic wave.…”

IgG seroprevalence against SARS-CoV-2 in a cohort of 449 non-hospitalized, high-risk exposure individuals.

“…Other studies focused in these professionals reveals rates ranging from 2% 18 , 7.5% 17,20 , 10% [11][12][13] to nearly 20% 19,21 . Our results are in the upper range and backed by recent data from a large cohort of HCWs in a secondary teaching hospital in Madrid province 22 . These results are consistent with a close to two-fold higher risk for health-care workers indicated in the Spanish national seroprevalence study, as the reference population for our cohort would be the IgG+ prevalence in Madrid province, being 11.5% 11 .…”

A cross-sectional study of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among asymptomatic healthcare workers in a tertiary healthcare centre: Assessing the impact of PPE guidelines

“…HCW being a part of the general population do participate in social activities and gatherings, and are subject to similar risks as other members in the community in addition to the place of work. Among the HCW at our centre, seropositivity was more in men, a scenario which has been reported in other studies too [ 9 , 14 ].…”