The incidence of COVID-19 medical workers. The issues of biosafety and occupational risk factors

Abstract

Relevance. During the pandemic of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), one of the most vulnerable and actively involved in the epidemic process categories of the population were medical workers. The study of the incidence of COVID-19 among medical workers, risk factors for infection and safety measures is an important area of research in modern conditions. The aim of the study is to assess the prevalence of COVID-19 among employees of medical organizations and occupational risk factors for infection in order to develop proposals for corrective measures. Materials and methods. To study the incidence of COVID-19 among employees of medical organizations, an anonymous online questionnaire developed by the authors was used, which was posted on the Google platform and distributed during the first wave of the pandemic among employees of medical organizations in several regions of the Russian Federation through corporate e-mail or specialized online resources adapted for health workers. The survey involved 1,872 medical workers of different genders, ages, positions and work experience. Results and discussion. Among the survey participants, 161 employees have already had a new coronavirus infection. In the majority (64.0%) of them, the disease occurred in the form of acute respiratory infection, in 28.6% - interstitial pneumonia, in 7.4% only the fact of isolation of the SARSCoV-2 antigen without clinical manifestations of infection was documented. The most affected contingents were secondary and junior medical personnel, mainly hospital staff. The likelihood of infection in the workplace was increased by factors such as providing care to patients with confirmed COVID-19, participating in procedures related to aerosol generation, working with biomaterials of patients with COVID-19, contact with surfaces in the environment of a COVID-19 patient, ignorance of infectious safety issues due to lack of instruction before admission to work. When assessing the efficiency of personal protective equipment (PPE) when they are used in the process, it was found that the highest value for the prevention of infection COVID-19 had a PPE for face protection, respiratory and eye, and hand hygiene. At the same time, many employees are faced with the problem of an insufficient number of protective equipment in the workplace. When assessing the availability of SARS-CoV-2 testing to employees, it was found that only 77.4% of survey participants had the opportunity to be tested for coronavirus infection in a timely manner. Conclusion. Thus, for more effective protection of employees of medical organizations, it is necessary to have a sufficient number of personal protective equipment, especially for the face, respiratory organs and vision, the availability of hygienic hand treatment during work, regular instruction on infectious safety, using interactive forms of training, and the organization of screening examinations of previously unvaccinated and unvaccinated employees.