Hospital staff may be carrying SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease, without realising they are infected, according to a study by researchers at the University of Cambridge.
Hospital staff may be carrying SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease, without realising they are infected, according to a study by researchers at the University of Cambridge.
Patients admitted to NHS hospitals are now routinely screened for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and isolated if necessary. But NHS workers, including patient-facing staff on the front line, such as doctors, nurses and physiotherapists, are tested and excluded from work only if they develop symptoms of the illness. Many of them, however, may show no symptoms at all even if infected, as a new study published in the journal eLife demonstrates.
The Cambridge team pro-actively swabbed and tested over 1,200 NHS staff at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, throughout April. The samples were analysed using a technique called PCR to copy and read the genetic information of material present on the swab, producing a colour change whenever the coronavirus was present in a specimen. At the same time, staff members were asked about relevant coronavirus symptoms.
Of the more than 1,000 staff members reporting fit for duty during the study period, 3% nevertheless tested positive for the coronavirus. On closer questioning, around one in five reported no symptoms, two in five had very mild symptoms that they had dismissed as inconsequential, and a further two in five reported COVID-19 symptoms that had stopped more than a week previously.
Read more at University of Cambridge
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