Perceptions of postoutbreak management by management and healthcare workers of a Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in a tertiary care hospital: a qualitative study

Al Knawy, Bandar Abdulmohsen; Al-Kadri, Hanan M F; Elbarbary, Mahmoud; Arabi, Yaseen; Balkhy, Hanan H; Clark, Alex

ï‚· This study examines stakeholder perspectives of the factors contributing to or detracting from successful infection control management of a serious MERS-CoV outbreak. ï‚· The MERS-CoV outbreak was of international significance due to its high mortality. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 This study focuses on a major outbreak of the MERS-CoV which occurred at the King Abdulaziz Medical City-Riyadh (KAMC-R) in June 2015; 10 a large teaching hospital and university center in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 11 The outbreak resulted in 130 cases of infection (53% mortality rate) -the outbreak directly or indirectly involved 9,000 HCWs and all major departments at the institution (Table 1) . A comprehensive objective analysis of this 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 F o r p e e r r e v i e w o n l y 7 outbreak 10 identified that one third of infection cases were in HCWs, with about half of these cases (54%) occurring in ED staff (mean age: 37 years; 77% female) with no deaths 10 .