Antibody testing at Orange County, Calif.-based Hoag Memorial Hospital
Presbyterian found fewer employees had contracted
COVID-19 than the surrounding community, which may be due in part to the hospital's
rigorous infection control precautions, according to a study published
in the medial preprint server Medrxiv.
The hospital tested more than 3,000 hospital employees and independent
medical staff for antibodies in May and June. Data on 2,932 employees
were included in the analysis.
Preliminary results show about 1.1 percent of workers had COVID-19 antibodies,
compared to about 4.4 percent of local community members.
"Despite the headlines you see saying healthcare workers are at higher
risk of contracting the disease, we haven’t seen that," lead author
Michael Brant-Zawadzki, MD, senior physician executive at Hoag, told the
Orange County Register. "In fact, we're seeing the reverse of that. The question is,
why?"
Dr. Brant-Zawadzki said the trend could be due to hospitals' thorough
infection control precautions and the fact that many healthcare workers
may maintain this level of vigilance in their personal lives. Healthcare
workers may also have a greater presence of T cells that offer immunity
to the virus compared to the general population, researchers noted.
The research has not been peer reviewed and is ongoing. Researchers plan
to test 6,000 healthcare workers before concluding the study.
Visit
Becker's Hospital Review to read the original article.