A study published in the journal Lancet Public Health reveals frontline healthcare workers with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) have a three-fold increased risk of testing positive for Covid-19, as compared to the general population. It further suggested that healthcare workers from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds were most likely to test positive.
Researchers from King's College London and Harvard used the Civid Symptom Tracker App to look at data from 2,035,395 individuals and 99,795 frontline healthcare workers in the UK and US. The prevalence of Covid was 2,747 cases per 100,000 frontline healthcare workers compared with 242 cases per 100,000 people in the general community. A little over 20 per cent of frontline healthcare workers reported at least one symptom associated with Covid infection. More than 14.4 per cent of the general population recorded fatigue, loss of smell or taste, and hoarse voice.
BAME healthcare workers were at an especially high risk of Covid infection, with at least a five-fold increased risk of infection compared with the non-Hispanic white general community. Professor Sebastien Ourselin, senior author from King's College London said, “The findings of our study have a tremendous impact on healthcare workers and hospitals. The data is clear in revealing that there is still an elevated risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection despite the availability of PPE. In particular, we note that the BAME community experiences elevated risk of infection and in some cases lack access to adequate PPE, or frequently reuse equipment.”
Researchers said their study not only shows the importance of adequate availability and use of PPE, but also the crucial need for additional strategies to protect healthcare workers like correct application and removal of PPE, and avoiding reuse. The study also noted differences in PPE adequacy according to race and ethnicity, with non-Hispanic white healthcare workers more frequently reporting reuse of or inadequate access to PPE.
Joint first author Dr Mark Graham from King's College London, said, “The work is important in the context of the widely reported higher death rates among healthcare workers from BAME backgrounds. Hopefully, a better understanding of the factors contributing to these disparities will inform efforts to better protect workers.”
