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Containment of COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers: The role of surveillance, early detection, and outbreak management

OBJECTIVE: Staff surveillance is crucial during the containment phase of a pandemic to help reduce potential healthcare-associated transmission and sustain good staff morale. During an outbreak of SARS-COV-2 with community transmission, our institution used an integrated strategy for early detection...

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Autores principales: Wee, Liang En, Sim, Xiang Ying Jean, Conceicao, Edwin Philip, Aung, May Kyawt, Goh, Jia Qing, Yeo, Dennis Wu Ting, Gan, Wee Hoe, Chua, Ying Ying, Wijaya, Limin, Tan, Thuan Tong, Tan, Ban Hock, Ling, Moi Lin, Venkatachalam, Indumathi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7248595/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32391746
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ice.2020.219
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author Wee, Liang En
Sim, Xiang Ying Jean
Conceicao, Edwin Philip
Aung, May Kyawt
Goh, Jia Qing
Yeo, Dennis Wu Ting
Gan, Wee Hoe
Chua, Ying Ying
Wijaya, Limin
Tan, Thuan Tong
Tan, Ban Hock
Ling, Moi Lin
Venkatachalam, Indumathi
author_facet Wee, Liang En
Sim, Xiang Ying Jean
Conceicao, Edwin Philip
Aung, May Kyawt
Goh, Jia Qing
Yeo, Dennis Wu Ting
Gan, Wee Hoe
Chua, Ying Ying
Wijaya, Limin
Tan, Thuan Tong
Tan, Ban Hock
Ling, Moi Lin
Venkatachalam, Indumathi
author_sort Wee, Liang En
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Staff surveillance is crucial during the containment phase of a pandemic to help reduce potential healthcare-associated transmission and sustain good staff morale. During an outbreak of SARS-COV-2 with community transmission, our institution used an integrated strategy for early detection and containment of COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers (HCWs). METHODS: Our strategy comprised 3 key components: (1) enforcing reporting of HCWs with acute respiratory illness (ARI) to our institution’s staff clinic for monitoring; (2) conducting ongoing syndromic surveillance to obtain early warning of potential clusters of COVID-19; and (3) outbreak investigation and management. RESULTS: Over a 16-week surveillance period, we detected 14 cases of COVID-19 among HCWs with ARI symptoms. Two of the cases were linked epidemiologically and thus constituted a COVID-19 cluster with intrahospital HCW–HCW transmission; we also detected 1 family cluster and 2 clusters among HCWs who shared accommodation. No transmission to HCWs or patients was detected after containment measures were instituted. Early detection minimized the number of HCWs requiring quarantine, hence preserving continuity of service during an ongoing pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: An integrated surveillance strategy, outbreak management, and encouraging individual responsibility were successful in early detection of clusters of COVID-19 among HCWs. With ongoing local transmission, vigilance must be maintained for intrahospital spread in nonclinical areas where social mingling of HCWs occurs. Because most individuals with COVID-19 have mild symptoms, addressing presenteeism is crucial to minimize potential staff and patient exposure.
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spelling pubmed-72485952020-05-26 Containment of COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers: The role of surveillance, early detection, and outbreak management Wee, Liang En Sim, Xiang Ying Jean Conceicao, Edwin Philip Aung, May Kyawt Goh, Jia Qing Yeo, Dennis Wu Ting Gan, Wee Hoe Chua, Ying Ying Wijaya, Limin Tan, Thuan Tong Tan, Ban Hock Ling, Moi Lin Venkatachalam, Indumathi Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol Original Article OBJECTIVE: Staff surveillance is crucial during the containment phase of a pandemic to help reduce potential healthcare-associated transmission and sustain good staff morale. During an outbreak of SARS-COV-2 with community transmission, our institution used an integrated strategy for early detection and containment of COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers (HCWs). METHODS: Our strategy comprised 3 key components: (1) enforcing reporting of HCWs with acute respiratory illness (ARI) to our institution’s staff clinic for monitoring; (2) conducting ongoing syndromic surveillance to obtain early warning of potential clusters of COVID-19; and (3) outbreak investigation and management. RESULTS: Over a 16-week surveillance period, we detected 14 cases of COVID-19 among HCWs with ARI symptoms. Two of the cases were linked epidemiologically and thus constituted a COVID-19 cluster with intrahospital HCW–HCW transmission; we also detected 1 family cluster and 2 clusters among HCWs who shared accommodation. No transmission to HCWs or patients was detected after containment measures were instituted. Early detection minimized the number of HCWs requiring quarantine, hence preserving continuity of service during an ongoing pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: An integrated surveillance strategy, outbreak management, and encouraging individual responsibility were successful in early detection of clusters of COVID-19 among HCWs. With ongoing local transmission, vigilance must be maintained for intrahospital spread in nonclinical areas where social mingling of HCWs occurs. Because most individuals with COVID-19 have mild symptoms, addressing presenteeism is crucial to minimize potential staff and patient exposure. Cambridge University Press 2020-05-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7248595/ /pubmed/32391746 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ice.2020.219 Text en © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2020 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Wee, Liang En
Sim, Xiang Ying Jean
Conceicao, Edwin Philip
Aung, May Kyawt
Goh, Jia Qing
Yeo, Dennis Wu Ting
Gan, Wee Hoe
Chua, Ying Ying
Wijaya, Limin
Tan, Thuan Tong
Tan, Ban Hock
Ling, Moi Lin
Venkatachalam, Indumathi
Containment of COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers: The role of surveillance, early detection, and outbreak management
title Containment of COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers: The role of surveillance, early detection, and outbreak management
title_full Containment of COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers: The role of surveillance, early detection, and outbreak management
title_fullStr Containment of COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers: The role of surveillance, early detection, and outbreak management
title_full_unstemmed Containment of COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers: The role of surveillance, early detection, and outbreak management
title_short Containment of COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers: The role of surveillance, early detection, and outbreak management
title_sort containment of covid-19 cases among healthcare workers: the role of surveillance, early detection, and outbreak management
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7248595/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32391746
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ice.2020.219
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