IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i14p5104-d384808.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health Surveillance and Response to SARS-CoV-2 Mass Testing in Health Workers of a Large Italian Hospital in Verona, Veneto

Author

Listed:
  • Stefano Porru

    (Section of Occupational Medicine, Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy
    Clinical Unit of Occupational Medicine, University Hospital of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy)

  • Angela Carta

    (Section of Occupational Medicine, Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy
    Clinical Unit of Occupational Medicine, University Hospital of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy)

  • Maria Grazia Lourdes Monaco

    (Clinical Unit of Occupational Medicine, University Hospital of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy)

  • Giuseppe Verlato

    (Unit of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy)

  • Andrea Battaggia

    (Postgraduate School of Occupational Medicine, University of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy)

  • Marco Parpaiola

    (Postgraduate School of Occupational Medicine, University of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy)

  • Giuliana Lo Cascio

    (Unit of Microbiology and Virology, University Hospital of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy)

  • Manuela Pegoraro

    (Unit of Microbiology and Virology, University Hospital of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy)

  • Valentina Militello

    (Unit of Microbiology and Virology, University Hospital of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy)

  • Francesca Moretti

    (Section of Hygiene, Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona and Medical Direction, University Hospital of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy)

  • Stefano Tardivo

    (Section of Hygiene, Department of Diagnostics and Public Health, University of Verona and Medical Direction, University Hospital of Verona, 37134 Verona VR, Italy)

Abstract

Italy presented the first largest COVID-19 outbreak outside of China. Veneto currently ranks fourth among the Italian regions for COVID-19 confirmed cases (~19,000). This study presents health surveillance data for SARS-CoV-2 in 6100 health workers (HW) employed in a large public hospital. Workers underwent oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal swabs, with a total of 5942 participants (97.5% of the population). A total of 11,890 specimens were tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection using PCR, identifying the viral genes E, RdRP, and N. Positive tests were returned for 238 workers (cumulative incidence of 4.0%, similar in both COVID and nonCOVID units). SARS-CoV-2 risk was not affected by gender, age, or job type, whereas work setting and occupation were both predictors of infection. The risk was higher in medical wards (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.9–3.9) and health services (OR 4.3, 95% CI 2.4–7.6), and lower in surgical wards and administration areas. To our knowledge, this study represents the largest available HW case list swab-tested for SARS-CoV-2, covering almost the total workforce. Mass screening enabled the isolation of HW, improved risk assessment, allowed for close contacts of and infected HW to return to work, provided evidence of SARS-CoV-2 diffusion, and presented solid ground to prevent nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 infections. The ongoing concurrent sero-epidemiological study aims to enable the improvement of health surveillance to maintain the safety of HWs and the communities they serve.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefano Porru & Angela Carta & Maria Grazia Lourdes Monaco & Giuseppe Verlato & Andrea Battaggia & Marco Parpaiola & Giuliana Lo Cascio & Manuela Pegoraro & Valentina Militello & Francesca Moretti & S, 2020. "Health Surveillance and Response to SARS-CoV-2 Mass Testing in Health Workers of a Large Italian Hospital in Verona, Veneto," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-11, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:5104-:d:384808
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/5104/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/5104/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Carolyn Ingram & Vicky Downey & Mark Roe & Yanbing Chen & Mary Archibald & Kadri-Ann Kallas & Jaspal Kumar & Peter Naughton & Cyril Onwuelazu Uteh & Alejandro Rojas-Chaves & Shibu Shrestha & Shiraz Sy, 2021. "COVID-19 Prevention and Control Measures in Workplace Settings: A Rapid Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-26, July.
    2. Elpidio Maria Garzillo & Arcangelo Cioffi & Angela Carta & Maria Grazia Lourdes Monaco, 2022. "Returning to Work after the COVID-19 Pandemic Earthquake: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-37, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:5104-:d:384808. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.