Open AccessPrevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and risk factors in health care workers
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
przegląd epidemiologiczny
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.158
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 2545-1898
pISSN - 0033-2100
DOI - 10.32394/74.52
Subject(s) - pandemic , epidemiology , infection control , health care , medicine , personal protective equipment , test (biology) , family medicine , risk of infection , covid-19 , environmental health , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , intensive care medicine , pathology , paleontology , genetics , economics , biology , economic growth
The COVID-19 pandemic verifies the preparation of medical care in individual countries in terms of the fluent of guaranteed medical services provided to the people in need. Due to the easy spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus when in direct contact with the patients, health care workers are at an increased risk of infection. Nurses and auxiliary staff, as well as medical doctors, were most frequently infected. The prevalence of infection depends on the adopted reporting method, including the diagnostic test used to recognize the infection, the nature of the work performed, but also on the gender, knowledge, and individual behavior of employees while performing their professional duties. It ranges from 5-30% depending on the country and the occupational group, and the highest rates were recorded in the initial phase of the pandemic. A review of the literature shows the lack of a uniform, transparent system of reporting infections in health care workers, which makes a reliable assessment of the epidemiological situation in this area difficult.