Background: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is responsible for more fatalities than the SARS coronavirus, despite being in the initial stage of a global pandemic.

COVID-19 is an emerging disease threatening the lives of patients and healthcare workers (HCWs) alike. In this article, we present initial results of COVID-19 screening performed among the hospital staff of an infectious diseases referral hospital in Manila, the Philippines. Of 324 HCWs tested, eight were positive; only one was exposed to COVID-19 patients, whereas seven others belonged to two different departments. Routine screening of hospital staff is invaluable for the safety of the HCWs and the patients in hospitals and should be performed on a regular basis. In monitoring HCWs, we protect one of our most valuable assets against COVID-19.

The COVID-19 global pandemic is entering its second year. In this short report we present additional results as a supplement to our previous paper on COVID-19 and common respiratory virus screening for healthcare workers (HCWs) in a tertiary infectious disease referral hospital in Manila, Philippines. We sought to understand what etiologic agents could explain the upper/lower respiratory tract infection-like (URTI/LRTI-like) symptoms exhibited by 88% of the 324 HCWs tested. Among the patients who had URTI/LRTI-like symptoms, only seven (2%) were positive for COVID-19, while 38 (13%) of the symptomatic participants were identified positive for another viral etiologic agent. Rhinovirus was the most common infection, with 21 (9%) of the symptomatic participants positive for rhinovirus. Based on these results, testing symptomatic HCWs for common respiratory illnesses in addition to COVID-19 should be considered during this time of global pandemic.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Community-acquired bacterial bloodstream infections are caused by diverse pathogens with changing antimicrobial-resistance patterns. In low-middle income countries in Southeast Asia, where dengue fever is endemic and a leading cause of fever, limited information is available about bacterial bloodstream infections due to challenges of implementing a blood culture service. This study describes bacterial bloodstream pathogens and antimicrobial-resistance patterns in Metro Manila, the Philippines. We aimed to identify the proportion of patients with a positive blood culture, the bacteria isolated and their antimicrobial resistance patterns, and the clinical characteristics of these patients, in this dengue endemic area. We conducted a prospective observational study in a single hospital enrolling febrile patients clinically suspected of having a community-acquired bacterial bloodstream infection between 1st July 2015 and 30th June 2019. Each patient had a blood culture and additional diagnostic tests according to their clinical presentation. We enrolled 1315 patients and a significant positive blood culture was found in 77 (5.9%) including Staphylococcus aureus (n = 20), Salmonella enterica Typhi (n = 18), Escherichia coli (n = 16), Streptococcus pneumoniae (n = 3) and Burkholderia pseudomallei (n = 2). Thirty-four patients had meningococcal disease diagnosed by culture (n = 8) or blood PCR (n = 26). Additional confirmed diagnoses included leptospirosis (n = 177), dengue virus infection (n = 159) and respiratory diphtheria (n = 50). There were 79 (6.0%, 95%CI 4.8%−7.4%) patients who died within 28 days of enrollment. Patients with a positive blood culture were significantly more likely to die than patients with negative culture (15.2% vs 4.4%, P<0.01). Among S. aureus isolates, 11/20 (55%) were methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and ST30: USA1100 was dominant sequence type (88.9%). Antimicrobial-susceptibility was well preserved in S. enterica Typhi. Among hospitalized patients with clinically suspected community-acquired bacterial bloodstream infection in Metro Manila, the Philippines, 5.9% had a blood culture confirmed infection of whom 15.6% died. S. aureus, including a significant number of MRSA (USA1100 clones), S. enterica Typhi, E.coli and Neisseria meningitidis were frequently identified pathogens.