High Incidence Rate of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Health Care Workers at a Dedicated COVID-19 Hospital: Experiences of the Pandemic from a Large Mexican Hospital

Abstract

Health care workers (HCW) are at high risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. The incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in HCW has been examined in cross-sectional studies by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) tests, which may lead to underestimating exact incidence rates. We thus investigated the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a group of HCW at a dedicated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) hospital in a six-month follow-up period. We conducted a prospective cohort study on 109 participants of both sexes working in areas of high, moderate, and low SARS-CoV-2 exposure. qPCR tests in nasopharyngeal swabs and anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG serum antibodies were assessed at the beginning and six months later. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters were analyzed according to IgG seropositivity by paired Student’s T-test or the chi-square test. The incidence rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection was considerably high in our cohort of HCW (58%), among whom 67% were asymptomatic carriers. No baseline risk factors contributed to the infection rate, including the workplace. It is still necessary to increase hospital safety procedures to prevent virus transmissibility from HCW to relatives and non-COVID-19 patients during the upcoming waves of contagion.

SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Dynamics in Healthcare Workers after mRNA Vaccination

“…The incidence of COVID-19 in HCWs may mirror the prevalent community environment and local epidemiology [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Additional occupational exposure of HCWs has been postulated to be a significant risk factor for acquisition of SARS-CoV-2 in some settings [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Maintaining protection of HCWs through appropriate infection control methods and vaccination remains critical to maintaining a public health and clinical care workforce in order to manage the pandemic [ 15 ].…”

Opportune warning of COVID-19 in a Mexican health care worker cohort: Discrete beta distribution entropy of smartwatch physiological records

“…Only volunteers with no previous diagnosis or symptoms of SARS-Cov-2 were considered. A detailed account of the cohort constitution with criteria related to the selection of participants, clinical evaluation of volunteers and chemical laboratory analysis protocols is presented in [18] . Here we summarize the main cohort procedure considerations: (i) All participants had medical examinations both physical and clinical.…”

Risk factors contributing to infection with SARS-CoV-2 are modulated by sex

“…In a recent publication, we reported on results of a cohort of healthcare workers (HCW) from the Hospital General de México Dr. Eduardo Liceaga (HGMEL), who were exposed during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico, from August to December 2020 [ 1 ]. The cohort underwent a baseline evaluation during which a variety of categorical and continuous variables were registered, including medical history, demographic, anthropomorphic, clinical and laboratory information, and working conditions.…”

“…No additional information was recorded for the hypertensive participants (e.g., the degree of hypertension), but all hypertensive participants were medicated and had blood pressure measurements in the range normal to normal-high, indicating that their hypertensive condition was under control. We concluded that it is possible that participants recognizing themselves as a vulnerable population with comorbidities, such as hypertension, followed safety procedures and social distancing more strictly than participants without known comorbidities, and therefore by adapting their behavior were less likely to become infected [ 1 ].…”

“…The purpose of the present contribution is to reanalyze the dataset of demographic and anthropometric characteristics and laboratory parameters of the cohort using more advanced statistical methods. Our previous contribution [ 1 ] used common univariate statistical analyses, such as the Student t-test for continuous variables and the χ 2 -test for categorical variables, and the conclusions on risk factors for infection with SARS-CoV-2 are counterintuitive because hypertension was defined early on during the pandemic as an important risk factor for adverse health results in the development of the COVID-19 disease. The results of our previous publication were based on a preliminary dataset of n = 110 participants that was constructed with the parameters and the evaluation results that were available at that time.…”