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Analysis of COVID-19 outbreaks in 3 long-term care facilities in Graz, Austria

BACKGROUND: Nursing homes and long-term care facilities (LTCF) caring for elderly and chronically ill residents are at high risk to experience severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreaks. We report an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in 3 LTCFs of the G...

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Autores principales: Zollner-Schwetz, Ines, König, Elisabeth, Krause, Robert, Pux, Christian, Laubreiter, Lisa, Schippinger, Walter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8364514/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34403755
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2021.08.006
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author Zollner-Schwetz, Ines
König, Elisabeth
Krause, Robert
Pux, Christian
Laubreiter, Lisa
Schippinger, Walter
author_facet Zollner-Schwetz, Ines
König, Elisabeth
Krause, Robert
Pux, Christian
Laubreiter, Lisa
Schippinger, Walter
author_sort Zollner-Schwetz, Ines
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Nursing homes and long-term care facilities (LTCF) caring for elderly and chronically ill residents are at high risk to experience severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreaks. We report an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in 3 LTCFs of the Geriatric Health Centres of Graz, Austria lasting from March 22 to April 14, 2020. AIM: The objectives of our study were: (1) to elucidate contributing factors and transmission pathways of SARS-CoV-2, (2) to analyze symptoms of COVID-19 in the residents and health care workers. METHODS: We carried out a retrospective outbreak analysis. FINDINGS: Thirty-six of /277 residents of 3 LTCFs were infected with SARS-CoV-2. Only a quarter of COVID-19 cases among residents had fever ≥38.1°C and 19% suffered from cough. Six of 36 residents remained asymptomatic. Hospitalization rate was 58% in residents. Overall, 33% (12/36) residents infected with SARS-CoV-2 died. Nineteen of 214 health care workers were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Universal rt-PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 of all residents and health care workers as well as infection control measures contributed to ending the outbreaks. CONCLUSIONS: Delayed recognition of possible COVID-19 cases due to either mild symptoms or symptoms that were perceived as atypical early in the pandemic contributed to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in LTCFs. This emphasizes the importance of low-threshold testing in LTCF residents.
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spelling pubmed-83645142021-08-15 Analysis of COVID-19 outbreaks in 3 long-term care facilities in Graz, Austria Zollner-Schwetz, Ines König, Elisabeth Krause, Robert Pux, Christian Laubreiter, Lisa Schippinger, Walter Am J Infect Control Major Article BACKGROUND: Nursing homes and long-term care facilities (LTCF) caring for elderly and chronically ill residents are at high risk to experience severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreaks. We report an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in 3 LTCFs of the Geriatric Health Centres of Graz, Austria lasting from March 22 to April 14, 2020. AIM: The objectives of our study were: (1) to elucidate contributing factors and transmission pathways of SARS-CoV-2, (2) to analyze symptoms of COVID-19 in the residents and health care workers. METHODS: We carried out a retrospective outbreak analysis. FINDINGS: Thirty-six of /277 residents of 3 LTCFs were infected with SARS-CoV-2. Only a quarter of COVID-19 cases among residents had fever ≥38.1°C and 19% suffered from cough. Six of 36 residents remained asymptomatic. Hospitalization rate was 58% in residents. Overall, 33% (12/36) residents infected with SARS-CoV-2 died. Nineteen of 214 health care workers were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Universal rt-PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 of all residents and health care workers as well as infection control measures contributed to ending the outbreaks. CONCLUSIONS: Delayed recognition of possible COVID-19 cases due to either mild symptoms or symptoms that were perceived as atypical early in the pandemic contributed to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in LTCFs. This emphasizes the importance of low-threshold testing in LTCF residents. The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. 2021-11 2021-08-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8364514/ /pubmed/34403755 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2021.08.006 Text en © 2021 The Authors Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Major Article
Zollner-Schwetz, Ines
König, Elisabeth
Krause, Robert
Pux, Christian
Laubreiter, Lisa
Schippinger, Walter
Analysis of COVID-19 outbreaks in 3 long-term care facilities in Graz, Austria
title Analysis of COVID-19 outbreaks in 3 long-term care facilities in Graz, Austria
title_full Analysis of COVID-19 outbreaks in 3 long-term care facilities in Graz, Austria
title_fullStr Analysis of COVID-19 outbreaks in 3 long-term care facilities in Graz, Austria
title_full_unstemmed Analysis of COVID-19 outbreaks in 3 long-term care facilities in Graz, Austria
title_short Analysis of COVID-19 outbreaks in 3 long-term care facilities in Graz, Austria
title_sort analysis of covid-19 outbreaks in 3 long-term care facilities in graz, austria
topic Major Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8364514/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34403755
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2021.08.006
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