COVID‐19 prevalence among health‐care workers of Gastroenterology department: An audit from a tertiary‐care hospital in India

Abstract

Background and Aim: In the present coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) era, health-care workers (HCWs) warrant special attention because of their higher risk and potential to transmit the disease. Gastroenterology services include emergency and critical care along with the endoscopy procedures, which have aerosol-generating potential. This study was aimed at auditing the COVID-19 impact on HCWs working in the Gastroenterology department of our hospital. Methods: The COVID-19 status of 117 HCWs was collected using either polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or Immunoglobulin G (IgG) seroassay. COVID-19 positivity was correlated with demographic characteristics, job profile, area of work, and medical history. Results: Thirty-eight HCWs (32.48%) showed evidence of COVID-19 using PCR (23.93%) or only IgG assay (8.55%). Endoscopy technicians (68.75%) exhibited significantly higher (P = 0.003) COVID-19 incidence compared to doctors (20.69%). Those working in the critical care units exhibited a trend toward higher COVID-19 incidence (42.86%). None of the six HCWs who received adequate hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis developed evidence of COVID-19. All the HCWs with COVID-19 disease recovered. However, there was a considerable loss of "man-days." Conclusions: In our setting, we observed a high COVID-19 risk for HCWs working in the Gastroenterology department, with the highest risk among the endoscopy technicians. A more stringent triaging and pretesting of patients, as well as HCWs, might decrease the risk of COVID-19. Further multicenter studies are needed to evaluate the risk and related parameters. Methods Study population. This cross-sectional study was performed in August 2020. The department of Gastroenterology at the Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata, India, has 117 HCWs.

Clinical Efficacy of Novel Patient-Covering Negative-Pressure Box for Shielding Virus Transmission during Esophagogastroduodenoscopy: A Prospective Observational Study

“…This reduction in activity has the serious effect of delaying the diagnosis of important diseases such as early gastrointestinal malignancies [ 1 ]. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) is an aerosol-generating procedure that has the potential to transmit the virus from infected patients to health care workers (HCWs); in fact, among all HCWs in the field of gastroenterology, the risk of COVID-19 is reportedly highest among endoscopy technicians [ 2 ]. Several guidelines, including those of the World Endoscopy Organization, the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the Asian Pacific Society of Digestive Endoscopy, and the Japan Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, recommend wearing standard or full personal protective equipment (PPE) during gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures to minimize the risk of infection to HCWs during the pandemic [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ].…”

Factors associated with an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare workers in aerosol-generating disciplines

“…Current data on the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infections among HCW are inconsistent, ranging from 4.3 % to 32.5 % [3,4,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Our study shows a nationwide HCW-infection a Rates refer to the total of answers given by participating facilities.…”

Seropositivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection among healthcare workers of the Armed Forces medical services, India: A multicentric study

“… 20 Mumbai May 2020 1552 6.9% 9 Goenka et al. 21 Kolkata August 117 32.5% 10 Singhal et al. 23 Mumbai June 244 4.3% …”

“…Serosurvey studies from individual investigators have been published since then; however, they are limited to a single centre and in small sample sizes. 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 Moreover, the associated factors of seropositivity need to be studied in detail.…”