Talbot Lillian R, Romeiser Jamie L, Spitzer Eric D, Gan Tong J, Singh Sunitha M, Fries Bettina C, Bennett-Guerrero Elliott
Renaissance Stony Brook School of Medicine, Stony Brook, USA.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs - Northport VA Medical Center, Northport, NY, USA.
Perioper Med (Lond). 2021 Mar 2;10(1):7. doi: 10.1186/s13741-021-00177-5.
Health care workers (HCW) such as anesthesiologists, surgeons, and intensivists face high rates of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 through direct contact with COVID-19 patients. While there are initial reports of the prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies among the general population, there are few reports comparing the seroprevalence of IgM/IgG COVID-19 antibodies in HCW of different exposure levels as well as different HCW professions.
A convenience sample of health care workers provided blood for COVID-19 antibody testing and a review of medical history and work exposure for correlative analyses.
Overall, 474 HCW were enrolled in April 2020 including 102 front-line physicians (e.g., anesthesiologists, surgeons, intensivists, emergency medicine), 91 other physicians, 135 nurses, 134 other clinical staff, and 12 non-clinical HCW. The prevalence of IgM or IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 was 16.9% (95% CI 13.6-20.6) (80/474). The proportion of positive antibodies in the PCR + group was significantly higher than health care workers without symptoms (84.6% [95% CI 54.6-98.1] vs. 12.3% [95% CI 8.5-17.2], p < 0.001). No significant differences in proportions of COVID-19 antibodies were observed among the different exposure groups (e.g., high vs minimal/no exposure) and among the different HCW professionals.
Despite exposure to COVID-19 patients, the prevalence of antibodies in our HCW was similar to what has been reported for the general population of New York State (14%) and for another New York HCW cohort (13.7%). Health care workers with higher exposure rates were not more likely to have been infected with COVID-19. Therefore, these data suggest that infection of HCW may result from exposure in the community rather than at work.
This investigator-initiated study was observational; therefore, no registration was required. Not applicable.
麻醉医生、外科医生和重症监护医生等医护人员通过直接接触新冠病毒疾病（COVID-19）患者，面临着较高的严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）暴露风险。虽然有关于普通人群中COVID-19抗体流行率的初步报告，但很少有报告比较不同暴露水平的医护人员以及不同医护职业中IgM/IgG COVID-19抗体的血清流行率。
采用便利抽样法，选取医护人员提供血液进行COVID-19抗体检测，并回顾病史和工作暴露情况进行相关分析。
总体而言，2020年4月共纳入474名医护人员，包括102名一线医生（如麻醉医生、外科医生、重症监护医生、急诊医生）、91名其他医生、135名护士、134名其他临床工作人员和12名非临床医护人员。SARS-CoV-2 IgM或IgG抗体的流行率为16.9%（95%可信区间[CI] 13.6 - 20.6）（80/474）。聚合酶链反应（PCR）阳性组的抗体阳性比例显著高于无症状医护人员（84.6%[95% CI 54.6 - 98.1] vs. 12.3%[95% CI 8.5 - 17.2]，p < 0.001）。在不同暴露组（如高暴露与低暴露/无暴露）和不同医护职业之间，未观察到COVID-19抗体比例的显著差异。
尽管接触了COVID-19患者，但我们的医护人员中抗体流行率与纽约州普通人群报告的流行率（14%）以及另一个纽约医护人员队列的流行率（13.7%）相似。暴露率较高的医护人员感染COVID-19的可能性并不更高。因此，这些数据表明医护人员的感染可能源于社区暴露而非工作场所暴露。
本研究者发起的研究为观察性研究；因此，无需注册。不适用。
