During the Covid-19 pandemic, rigorous measures have been taken to prevent infections among medical staff in hospitals. However, a new study from Vienna shows that non-medical staff became more likely to become Covid-19 positive than people in the general population. The infections mainly occurred in the private sector.
“At the start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, all healthcare professionals were of particular importance. However, less attention is paid to occupational groups working in the area – for example cleaning staff – and support health staff, for example physiotherapists,” writes Galateja Jordakieva from the Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Occupational Medicine at MedUni Vienna (AKH) and her co-authors. , including experts from the Klinik Favoriten around the infectious disease specialist Christoph Wenisch.
study published
As part of the scientific work, infection rates and associated conditions among cleaning and support health workers were analyzed for the period from May 2020 to March 2021. The results have now been published in the “Journal of Infection and Public Health”.
The result: “Of the 221 employees in the hospital (including 189 in the cleaning staff and other services, 32 in the support health workers), 17 (7.7 percent) were seropositive (antibodies against SARS-CoV-2; note).” more from In the group of people who complained of SARS-CoV-2-related symptoms, respiratory problems, loss of smell or taste, and loss of appetite were most likely to be associated with a SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Danger lurked outside the hospital
98.6 percent of hospital staff followed the rules to prevent and control infection with Covid-19. 98.2 percent used personal protective equipment such as face masks, etc. during work. But the danger apparently lurked outside the hospital. The authors: “70.6 percent of the infections took place in the private sphere, 23.5 percent at work (17.6 percent only through contact with SARS-CoV-2 positive colleagues) and 5.9 percent after contact with (infectious; note) patients.” Only in one case could the transmission route not be traced.
Conclusion: The hospital’s internal precautions and preventive measures to prevent Covid-19 infections between patients and staff have probably worked. Still, the infection rate in the group of people studied was higher than in the general population during the observation period at the start of the pandemic. However, most of the Covid-19 cases that emerged were caused by infections in the private sphere, from where they were then taken to hospital.
Source: Krone
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