Elsevier

Journal of Hospital Infection

Volume 115, September 2021, Pages 59-63
Journal of Hospital Infection

Short Report
Healthcare workers acquired COVID-19 disease from patients? An investigation by phylogenomics

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.05.017Get rights and content

Summary

The increasing number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the community has posed a significant epidemic pressure on healthcare settings. When healthcare workers (HCWs) acquire COVID-19, contact tracing and epidemiological investigation might not be adequate for determining the source of transmission. Here, we report a phylogenetic investigation involving two infected HCWs and nine patients to determine whether patient-to-HCW transmission had occurred in a hospital without a previous COVID-19 outbreak. This is the first study to apply phylogenomics to investigate suspected nosocomial transmission in a region with low prevalence of COVID-19. Our results do not support the occurrence of direct patient-to-HCW transmission.

Keywords

SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19
Whole-genome sequencing
Healthcare workers
Phylogenomics
Epidemiology

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