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First report on prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among health-care workers in Nicaragua

The Nicaraguan COVID-19 situation is exceptional for Central America. The government restricts testing and testing supplies, and the true extent of the coronavirus crisis remains unknown. Dozens of deaths have been reported among health-care workers. However, statistics on the crisis’ effect on heal...

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Autores principales: Huete-Pérez, Jorge A., Cabezas-Robelo, Cristiana, Páiz-Medina, Lucía, Hernández-Álvarez, Carlos A., Quant-Durán, Carlos, McKerrow, James H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7840011/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33503071
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246084
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author Huete-Pérez, Jorge A.
Cabezas-Robelo, Cristiana
Páiz-Medina, Lucía
Hernández-Álvarez, Carlos A.
Quant-Durán, Carlos
McKerrow, James H.
author_facet Huete-Pérez, Jorge A.
Cabezas-Robelo, Cristiana
Páiz-Medina, Lucía
Hernández-Álvarez, Carlos A.
Quant-Durán, Carlos
McKerrow, James H.
author_sort Huete-Pérez, Jorge A.
collection PubMed
description The Nicaraguan COVID-19 situation is exceptional for Central America. The government restricts testing and testing supplies, and the true extent of the coronavirus crisis remains unknown. Dozens of deaths have been reported among health-care workers. However, statistics on the crisis’ effect on health-care workers and their risk of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 are lacking. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in health-care workers and to examine correlations with risk factors such as age, sex and comorbidities. Study participants (N = 402, median age 38.48 years) included physicians, nurses and medical assistants, from public and private hospitals, independent of symptom presentation. SARS-CoV-2 was detected on saliva samples using the loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay. A questionnaire was employed to determine subjects’ COVID-19-associated symptoms and their vulnerability to complications from risk factors such as age, sex, professional role and comorbidities. The study was performed five weeks into the exponential growth period in Nicaragua. We discovered that 30.35% of health-care workers participating in our study had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. A large percentage (54.92%) of those who tested positive were asymptomatic and were still treating patients. Nearly 50% of health-care workers who tested positive were under 40, an astonishing 30.33% reported having at least one comorbidity. In our study, sex and age are important risk factors for the probability of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 with significance being greatest among those between 30 and 40 years of age. In general, being male resulted in higher risk. Our data are the first non-governmental data obtained in Nicaragua. They shed light on several important aspects of COVID-19 in an underdeveloped nation whose government has implemented a herd-immunity strategy, while lacking an adequate healthcare system and sufficient PPE for health-care workers. These data are important for creating policies for containing the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
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spelling pubmed-78400112021-02-02 First report on prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among health-care workers in Nicaragua Huete-Pérez, Jorge A. Cabezas-Robelo, Cristiana Páiz-Medina, Lucía Hernández-Álvarez, Carlos A. Quant-Durán, Carlos McKerrow, James H. PLoS One Research Article The Nicaraguan COVID-19 situation is exceptional for Central America. The government restricts testing and testing supplies, and the true extent of the coronavirus crisis remains unknown. Dozens of deaths have been reported among health-care workers. However, statistics on the crisis’ effect on health-care workers and their risk of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 are lacking. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in health-care workers and to examine correlations with risk factors such as age, sex and comorbidities. Study participants (N = 402, median age 38.48 years) included physicians, nurses and medical assistants, from public and private hospitals, independent of symptom presentation. SARS-CoV-2 was detected on saliva samples using the loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay. A questionnaire was employed to determine subjects’ COVID-19-associated symptoms and their vulnerability to complications from risk factors such as age, sex, professional role and comorbidities. The study was performed five weeks into the exponential growth period in Nicaragua. We discovered that 30.35% of health-care workers participating in our study had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. A large percentage (54.92%) of those who tested positive were asymptomatic and were still treating patients. Nearly 50% of health-care workers who tested positive were under 40, an astonishing 30.33% reported having at least one comorbidity. In our study, sex and age are important risk factors for the probability of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 with significance being greatest among those between 30 and 40 years of age. In general, being male resulted in higher risk. Our data are the first non-governmental data obtained in Nicaragua. They shed light on several important aspects of COVID-19 in an underdeveloped nation whose government has implemented a herd-immunity strategy, while lacking an adequate healthcare system and sufficient PPE for health-care workers. These data are important for creating policies for containing the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Public Library of Science 2021-01-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7840011/ /pubmed/33503071 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246084 Text en © 2021 Huete-Pérez et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Huete-Pérez, Jorge A.
Cabezas-Robelo, Cristiana
Páiz-Medina, Lucía
Hernández-Álvarez, Carlos A.
Quant-Durán, Carlos
McKerrow, James H.
First report on prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among health-care workers in Nicaragua
title First report on prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among health-care workers in Nicaragua
title_full First report on prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among health-care workers in Nicaragua
title_fullStr First report on prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among health-care workers in Nicaragua
title_full_unstemmed First report on prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among health-care workers in Nicaragua
title_short First report on prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among health-care workers in Nicaragua
title_sort first report on prevalence of sars-cov-2 infection among health-care workers in nicaragua
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7840011/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33503071
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246084
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