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

We found a very high rate of bacterial colonisation in HCWs, especially Streptococcus pneumonia, with fluctuation in infections over a period of weeks. Almost 88% of all HCWs had bacteria detected in the nasopharynx at baseline, the end of the study period or both. This is a much higher rate of colonisation compared to other studies of adults. For example, other studies of adults show rates of 5-20% [27, 28] . We have previously shown only 0.3% of elderly subjects carry pneumococcus in the nasopharynx. The finding of such a high rate in this HCW population may reflect greater exposure to respiratory infections in the hospital setting and confirms the continual, ongoing risk to HCWs in the hospital setting. Respiratory infections in hospital HCWs are of particular concern due to the risk of transmission to patients who are ill and/or immunocompromised. Respiratory tract infections generally present with symptoms such as fever, tachypnea, shortness of breath and cough. However the relationship of bacterial colonization to symptomatic illness has not been studied extensively. We found a very high and dynamic rate of bacterial colonisation in hospital HCWs, with changes from baseline to the end of the follow up period in the individuals with infection as well as the types of infection.