Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Among Healthcare Workers in South Africa: A Longitudinal Cohort Study. (5th May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nunes, Marta C; Baillie, Vicky L; Kwatra, Gaurav; Bhikha, Sutika; Verwey, Charl; Menezes, Colin; Cutland, Clare L; Moore, David P; Dangor, Ziyaad; Adam, Yasmin; Mathivha, Rudo; Velaphi, Sithembiso C; Tsitsi, Merika; Aguas, Ricardo; Madhi, Shabir A
• Is Part Of: Clinical infectious diseases. Volume 73:Number 10(2021)
• Page Start: 1896
• Page End: 1900
• Publication Date: 2021-05-05
• Subjects: COVID-19 -- SARS-CoV-2 -- hospital staff -- healthcare workers -- Africa; Communicable diseases -- Periodicals; 616.905
• DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciab398
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1058-4838

Abstract

Abstract: From April to September 2020, we investigated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections in a cohort of 396 healthcare workers (HCWs) from 5 departments at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, South Africa. Overall, 34.6% of HCWs had polymerase chain reaction–confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (132.1 [95% confidence interval, 111.8–156.2] infections per 1000 person-months); an additional 27 infections were identified by serology. HCWs in the internal medicine department had the highest rate of infection (61.7%). Among polymerase chain reaction–confirmed cases, 10.4% remained asymptomatic, 30.4% were presymptomatic, and 59.3% were symptomatic.