| Title: |
Occupational and community risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among employees of a long-term care facility: an observational study |
| Authors: |
Lenggenhager, L; Martischang, R; Sauser, J; Perez, M; Vieux, L; Graf, C; Cordey, S; Laubscher, F; Nunes, TR; Zingg, W; Cori, A; Harbarth, S; Abbas, M |
| Contributors: |
Medical Research Council (MRC); National Institute for Health Research |
| Publisher Information: |
BioMed Central |
| Publication Year: |
2022 |
| Collection: |
Imperial College London: Spiral |
| Subject Terms: |
Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Public; Environmental & Occupational Health; Infectious Diseases; Microbiology; Pharmacology & Pharmacy; SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; Nosocomial outbreaks; Occupational exposure; NURSING-HOMES; SEROPREVALENCE; ANTIBODIES; Humans; Long-Term Care; Nursing Homes; Pandemics; Phylogeny; Seroepidemiologic Studies; 0605 Microbiology; 1103 Clinical Sciences |
| Description: |
Background We investigated the contribution of both occupational and community exposure for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among employees of a university-affiliated long-term care facility (LTCF), during the 1st pandemic wave in Switzerland (March–June 2020). Methods We performed a nested analysis of a seroprevalence study among all volunteering LTCF staff to determine community and nosocomial risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity using modified Poison regression. We also combined epidemiological and genetic sequencing data from a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak investigation in a LTCF ward to infer transmission dynamics and acquisition routes of SARS-CoV-2, and evaluated strain relatedness using a maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree. Results Among 285 LTCF employees, 176 participated in the seroprevalence study, of whom 30 (17%) were seropositive for SARS-CoV-2. Most (141/176, 80%) were healthcare workers (HCWs). Risk factors for seropositivity included exposure to a COVID-19 inpatient (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR] 2.6; 95% CI 0.9–8.1) and community contact with a COVID-19 case (aPR 1.7; 95% CI 0.8–3.5). Among 18 employees included in the outbreak investigation, the outbreak reconstruction suggests 4 likely importation events by HCWs with secondary transmissions to other HCWs and patients. Conclusions These two complementary epidemiologic and molecular approaches suggest a substantial contribution of both occupational and community exposures to COVID-19 risk among HCWs in LTCFs. These data may help to better assess the importance of occupational health hazards and related legal implications during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control; http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/98033; MR/R015600/1; NIHR200908 |
| DOI: |
10.1186/s13756-022-01092-0 |
| Availability: |
http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/98033; https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-022-01092-0 |
| Rights: |
© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. ; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.63100E91 |
| Database: |
BASE |