Viral and bacterial upper respiratory tract infection in hospital health care workers over time and association with symptoms

Raina MacIntyre, C.; Chughtai, Abrar Ahmad; Zhang, Yi; Seale, Holly; Yang, Peng; Chen, Joshua; Pan, Yang; Zhang, Daitao; Wang, Quanyi

The significance of finding pathogenic bacteria in the upper respiratory tract is unknown, as it is generally thought that many people are asymptomatic carriers of colonising bacteria [1] [2] [3] . To date, there has been very little research looking at the role of upper respiratory tract bacteria as a cause of mild respiratory illness. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk of nosocomial infection with respiratory, blood borne and other infections [4] [5] [6] . Respiratory infections are the leading cause of acute infections in humans. Whilst the burden of disease is well recognised in the elderly and immunocompromised, limited information exists on the impact of respiratory infections on HCWs [6] [7] [8] . Nosocomial infections among HCWs result in increased rates of illness, absenteeism and even death amongst HCWs [5, 9] and also comes at a large financial cost to the health care system [10] . HCWs may also be a source of infection in nosocomial outbreaks [11] . Transmission of influenza from patient-to-HCW and HCW-to-patient have been identified in many cases highlighting the importance HCWs play in hospital transmission [12] .