Rev Med Inst Mex Seguro Soc. 2021 Sep 1;59(5):404-411.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The pandemic caused by COVID-19 is one of the main problems of public health around the world. Of the individuals with infection, a large amount corresponds to first-level health workers.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between length of stay in respiratory offices and SARS-CoV-2 infection in health workers at a first-level health center.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: Cross-sectional analytic study in health workers of a first-level unit of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, who developed suspected symptomatology of SARS-CoV-2 infection from March 2020 to January 2021. Two groups were formed according to the result of the RT-PCR. Demographic variables, occupation, work area, work in respiratory area, hours of work accumulated within the respiratory area to develop symptomatology, and date of development of symptomatology were registered.
RESULTS: Of 350 health workers active, 144 developed respiratory symptomatology; of these, 66 had positive RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Working in an area with no respiratory patients but in contact with other patients confers an OR 2.49 (1.04-6.26), when compared with working in a respiratory area, p 0.0446. The length in a filter for respiratory patients gives a protective OR of 0.3062 (0.08-0.99) for developing SARS-CoV-2 infection, p 0.0608. Each hour accumulated in a respiratory area confers an OR 1.001 (0.99-1.00) without statistical significance, p 0.3046.
CONCLUSIONS: Working in a respiratory area and the accumulated hours of work in this place are not risk factors for developing COVID-19 in health workers.
PMID:34918890
