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Control of an outbreak of COVID-19 at a tertiary hospital in Taiwan
BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has circulated in Taiwan since late 2019. Healthcare facilities are vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks due to clusters of symptomatic patients and susceptible hosts. Prompt control of outbreaks is crucial. In May 2021, an index case of COVID-19 was detec...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Taiwan Society of Microbiology. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC.
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9359752/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36028414 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmii.2022.08.001 |
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author | Hsu, Fang-Fang Yang, Chia-Jui Tsai, Mao-Song Tsai, Hsih-Yeh Chen, Hong-An Liao, Chun-Hsing |
author_facet | Hsu, Fang-Fang Yang, Chia-Jui Tsai, Mao-Song Tsai, Hsih-Yeh Chen, Hong-An Liao, Chun-Hsing |
author_sort | Hsu, Fang-Fang |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has circulated in Taiwan since late 2019. Healthcare facilities are vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks due to clusters of symptomatic patients and susceptible hosts. Prompt control of outbreaks is crucial. In May 2021, an index case of COVID-19 was detected at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital (FEMH) in New Taipei City, Taiwan, 3 days after hospital admission, spreading to 26 patients and staff. Herein we evaluate control of this COVID-1 outbreak. METHODS: To control the outbreak, the index case ward was closed, and large-scale COVID-19 testing (RT PCR) was performed for all inpatients, caregivers and healthcare workers (HCWs). All exposed persons were quarantined. Thorough investigation was conducted to analyze the transmission route. RESULTS: The outbreak comprised 12 patients, 12 caregivers, and 3 HCWs. Seven patients expired and the remaining cases recovered. Overall, 456 patients/caregivers and 169 HCWs were quarantined. Analysis showed that longer exposure time was the main cause of HCW infection; all three infected HCWs were primary-care nurses related to the index case. To diminish hidden cases, all hospitalized patients/caregivers received PCR examinations and all results were negative. Thereafter, all patients/caregivers routinely received PCR examination on admission. Hospital-wide PCR screening for HCW detected 4 positive HCWs unrelated to this outbreak, and a second-round of screening detected 2 more cases, with no additional cases during the following 6 months. CONCLUSION: Prompt infection control measures and large-scale PCR screening can control a COVID-19 outbreak within 2 weeks. Exposure time is the major risk factor for HCW infection. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9359752 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Taiwan Society of Microbiology. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-93597522022-08-09 Control of an outbreak of COVID-19 at a tertiary hospital in Taiwan Hsu, Fang-Fang Yang, Chia-Jui Tsai, Mao-Song Tsai, Hsih-Yeh Chen, Hong-An Liao, Chun-Hsing J Microbiol Immunol Infect Original Article BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has circulated in Taiwan since late 2019. Healthcare facilities are vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks due to clusters of symptomatic patients and susceptible hosts. Prompt control of outbreaks is crucial. In May 2021, an index case of COVID-19 was detected at Far Eastern Memorial Hospital (FEMH) in New Taipei City, Taiwan, 3 days after hospital admission, spreading to 26 patients and staff. Herein we evaluate control of this COVID-1 outbreak. METHODS: To control the outbreak, the index case ward was closed, and large-scale COVID-19 testing (RT PCR) was performed for all inpatients, caregivers and healthcare workers (HCWs). All exposed persons were quarantined. Thorough investigation was conducted to analyze the transmission route. RESULTS: The outbreak comprised 12 patients, 12 caregivers, and 3 HCWs. Seven patients expired and the remaining cases recovered. Overall, 456 patients/caregivers and 169 HCWs were quarantined. Analysis showed that longer exposure time was the main cause of HCW infection; all three infected HCWs were primary-care nurses related to the index case. To diminish hidden cases, all hospitalized patients/caregivers received PCR examinations and all results were negative. Thereafter, all patients/caregivers routinely received PCR examination on admission. Hospital-wide PCR screening for HCW detected 4 positive HCWs unrelated to this outbreak, and a second-round of screening detected 2 more cases, with no additional cases during the following 6 months. CONCLUSION: Prompt infection control measures and large-scale PCR screening can control a COVID-19 outbreak within 2 weeks. Exposure time is the major risk factor for HCW infection. Taiwan Society of Microbiology. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. 2022-12 2022-08-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9359752/ /pubmed/36028414 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmii.2022.08.001 Text en © 2022 Taiwan Society of Microbiology. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. 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 | Original Article Hsu, Fang-Fang Yang, Chia-Jui Tsai, Mao-Song Tsai, Hsih-Yeh Chen, Hong-An Liao, Chun-Hsing Control of an outbreak of COVID-19 at a tertiary hospital in Taiwan |
title | Control of an outbreak of COVID-19 at a tertiary hospital in Taiwan |
title_full | Control of an outbreak of COVID-19 at a tertiary hospital in Taiwan |
title_fullStr | Control of an outbreak of COVID-19 at a tertiary hospital in Taiwan |
title_full_unstemmed | Control of an outbreak of COVID-19 at a tertiary hospital in Taiwan |
title_short | Control of an outbreak of COVID-19 at a tertiary hospital in Taiwan |
title_sort | control of an outbreak of covid-19 at a tertiary hospital in taiwan |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9359752/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36028414 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmii.2022.08.001 |
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