Prevalence of SARS-COV-2 positivity in 516 German intensive care and emergency physicians studied by seroprevalence of antibodies National Covid Survey Germany (NAT-COV-SURV)

Abstract

Healthcare personnel are at risk to aquire the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We evaluated the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and positive nasopharyngeal reverse transcriptase polymerase-chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests in German intensive care and emergency physicians. Physicians attending intensive care and emergency medicine training courses between June 16th and July 2nd 2020 answered a questionnaire and were screened for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies via automated electrochemiluminiscence immunoassay. We recruited 516 physicans from all parts of Germany, 445/516 (86%) worked in high risk areas, and 379/516 (73%) had treated patients with COVID-19. The overall positive rate was 18/516 (3.5%), 16/18 (89%) had antibodies against SARS-COV-2, another 2 reported previous positive RT-PCR results although antibody testing was negative. Of those positive, 7/18 (39%) were unaware of their infection. A stay abroad was stated by 173/498 (35%), mostly in Europe. 87/516 (17%) reported a febrile respiratory infection after January 1st 2020 which was related to SARS-CoV-2 in 4/87 (4.6%). Contact to COVID-19 positive relatives at home was stated by 22/502 (4.4%). This was the only significant risk factor for Covid-19 infection (Fisher´s exact test, p = 0.0005). N95 masks and eye protection devices were available for 87% and 73%, respectively. A total of 254/502 (51%) had been vaccinated against seasonal influenza. The overall SARS-CoV-2 infection rate of german physicians from intensive care and emergency medicine was low compared to reports from other countries and settings. This finding may be explained by the fact that the German health care system was not overwhelmed by the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Employees of Three Hospitals of a Secondary Care Hospital Network in Germany and an Associated Fire Brigade: Results of a Repeated Cross-Sectional Surveillance Study Over 1 Year

“…Looking at the risk to acquire the SARS-CoV-2 infection privately or at work, we may assume that the participating hospitals were probably no places of infectious spread to employees in the first pandemic wave. Some studies on HCWs in Germany also differentiated between seroprevalence rates according to the risk at work [14,21], and investigated highrisk group HCWs on ICU, the COVID-19 ward and emergency department [19,22,23,31]. All these studies found a low seroprevalence up to 4.36% [18] in the first pandemic wave.…”

“…Data from German HCWs are available from a variety of hospitals, but nearly all published data focus on the first pandemic wave [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] (Table 1). Two hospitals reported data until December 2020 [21,22], but no information for HCWs in Germany is available for the year 2021 so far. Employees of three hospitals of a secondary care hospital network and an associated fire brigade [39], actual data…”

Efficacy of personal protective equipment to prevent environmental infection of COVID-19 among healthcare workers: a systematic review

“…Implementation of infection control measures such as wearing PPE in daily practice might also allow HCWs to contain the spread of COVID 19 infection [ 48 , 49 ] through exclusive use of FFP2/FFP3 ( P = 0.99) and eye-protective devices ( P = 0.99) [ 50 ]. Similarly, Hou and colleagues proposed a level system of PPE protection for HCWs [ 51 ].…”

Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccination and the Risk of COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Table S4. Baseline characteristics of the studies excluded from the meta-analysis that assessed the association between influenza vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection or its outcome [ 30 , 36 , 69 , 70 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 ].…”