Asymptomatic health workers: Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet have recorded the number of health workers in Stockholm. All of whom were on duty during the first wave of the pandemic despite being infected with SARS-CoV-2, having been asymptomatic at that time.
Asymptomatic healthcare workers: Researchers believe this could still have affected the spread of the infection
The results of the study, which is published in the journal PLOS ONE. They present very low figures. But the researchers believe this could still have affected the spread of the infection.
Out of a total of 9,449 healthcare workers in Stockholm who tested for a current infection between April and June 2020 while at work. Only 57 people (0.6 percent) tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus at levels so high that they are likely infectious.
Of these, 19 were presymptomatic, that is, they developed symptoms in the next fortnight. Additionally, 16 people (28 percent) remained asymptomatic, while 22 people had previously been on sick leave but recovered.
More common among young people
Healthcare workers under the age of 30 were overrepresented among those who tested positive for current infection while on duty. They also had generally higher virus levels than their older colleagues. 42 of the 57 potentially infectious people worked close to the patients and some cared for elderly patients at home.
“The numbers are very low, but the fact that these people were working despite having a high SARS-CoV-2 viral count. It could still have helped spread the infection. ” Says the study’s latest author, Joakim Dillner, professor of infection epidemiology in the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet. “Our findings demonstrate how important vaccination is for healthcare workers. Especially the younger ones, who seem more likely to shed large amounts of the virus while they are asymptomatic ”.
Not taken as a symptom of illness
Asymptomatic healthcare workers: The researchers also sent questionnaires to 3,981 healthcare workers who had undergone an antibody test as evidence of a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.
704 of them had antibodies against the coronavirus. Of these, only 10 percent or more stated that they had been asymptomatic and did not know they had the virus, compared with 28 percent in the part of the study that measured current infection.
“One of the reasons for the difference in the numbers is that the symptoms can be so mild that they are not considered real symptoms of the disease until later, once the infection has been confirmed,” says Ville Pimenoff, a researcher from the same department and of the study. First author.
One limitation of the study is that not everyone was asked about the above symptoms. There was also no information on whether people had taken sick leave due to COVID-19, as there were no systematic PCR tests during the time period.
The researchers also omitted to study whether those that emit large amounts of viruses actually infect someone.
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