Incidence of Reported Flu-Like Syndrome Cases in Brazilian Health Care Workers in 2020 (March to June)

Abstract

Health care workers (HCWs) are at an increased risk of being exposed to COVID-19. This study aimed to characterize flu-like syndrome cases (FS) in HCWs notified in Brazil and compare them with FS cases in the general community (GC). In the Brazilian protocol, FS corresponds to a suspected case of COVID-19. The manuscript analyzed cases of FS in five Brazilian states, estimating the incidence rates of cases of FS and clinical and epidemiological characteristics. Registered cases (March to June 2020) totaled about 1,100,000 cases of FS. HCWs represented 17% of the registers, whose incidence was 20.41/100 vs. 2.15/100 in the GC. FS cases in HCWs concentrated the highest percentages in the age group of 30 to 49 years (65.15%) and among the nursing staff (46.86%). This study was the first interstate evaluation in Brazil to estimate suspected cases of FS by COVID-19 in HCWs. In order to control the spread of viral respiratory infections in HCWs, including COVID-19, it is necessary to review the management of health information to identify who they are, how many they are, and to what situations these workers are most frequently exposed, as well as in what professions they have. This information can guide specific, practical, and far-reaching actions.

Prevalence of flu-like syndrome in healthcare workers in Brazil: a national study, 2020

“…Regardless of sex, race, and age, the HCW had a higher chance of reporting symptoms than non-HCW. When testing the interaction of health-related occupations with other variables this result -corroborated by the literature [1][2][3][4][5][8][9][10][11]18 remained, suggesting that the 1. The odds ratio means the probability of an event to occur in a given group.…”

“…There is scarce data on occurrence of Covid-19 in HCW in Brazil 5 . Nonetheless, it is known that diagnosis has been confirmed in 23.8% of cases of flu-like syndrome (FS) reported up to November 2021 for these workers.…”

“…The health professions with the highest records of confirmed cases were nurse technicians/licensed practical nurses, followed by registered nurses and physicians 1 . However, these official data are not disaggregated, and underreporting and low testing problems have been identified 4 , 5 .…”

COVID-19: estudo de protocolos de proteção individual para profissionais da saúde

“…Desde os primeiros surtos, os profissionais de saúde foram atingidos, fosse pela infecção ou pelo estresse mental e social de que são vítimas 1 . Vale mencionar o risco máximo dos que estão na linha de frente, porque lidam com pacientes assintomáticos e sintomáticos, testados ou não 2 .…”

“…A maior parte das tarefas realizadas pelo pessoal que assiste aos pacientes envolve contato direto, de maneira a justificar protocolos específicos de proteção 3 . Há carência de recursos materiais e de expertise para reverter a situação de vulnerabilidade na linha de frente da assistência a esses pacientes 2 .…”