The Situation and Preventive Measures Related to COVID-19 Infection for Medical Staff

Abstract

The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, emerged from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, and has recently spread all over the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers struggle against this microscopic enemy due to their job responsibilities, thus leading to be infected in some of them, even some of them are died in line of duty. As of 2 February 2021, 37 million cases of COVID-19 among health workers from 183 countries and regions were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), a figure that represents 36% of the total cases globally. The median age of these cases was 42 years and 68% were women. On May 24, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that at least 115,000 healthcare workers have died due to COVID-19 worldwide since the pandemic began last year. It is important to pay attention to the situation related to COVID-19 infection for medical staff and their preventive measures. This paper reviews the literature on all available information about the situation and preventive measures (The primary prevention of COVID-19 is to break the chain of transmission from infected to healthy people, secondary preventive measures comprise the use of health screening and recognition activities to ascertain those infected with COVID-19 and tertiary prevention consists of treatment and proper rehabilitation) related to COVID-19 infection for medical staff.

Hospital-Based Quasi-Experimental Study on Hydroxychloroquine Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for COVID-19 in Healthcare Providers with Its Potential Side-Effects

“…SARS-CoV-2 is exceedingly contagious (the reproduction number, "R naught" (R 0 ) ranges from 2.24 to 3.58 worldwide) and it notably affected front-line healthcare workers (HCWs) who treated COVID-19 patients [7][8][9]. As of the latest report, 37 million cases of COVID-19 among health workers from 183 countries and regions were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), a figure that represents 36% of the total cases [10]. Although the ongoing development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is regarded as the most promising preventive strategy, an urgent alternative until then would be to re-purpose already existing pharmacological agents as a prophylaxis for high-risk communities, such as the HCWs [11].…”