Abstract
The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a tremendous impact on every facet of private life and work organisation in virtually all social and economic sectors worldwide. People who stand on the first line of defence are healthcare workers (HCWs) risking exposure to infected patients. However, even though they are often affected by COVID-19 and associated somatic and mental health problems, COVID-19 as a new illness was not immediately acknowledged as occupational disease. This is why several groups of HCWs contacted their occupational medicine physicians in 2020 with a request to register the infection with SARS-CoV-2 as occupational disease. In an attempt to support their appeals and show that hospital workers have a high occupational risk of COVID-19, this study presents COVID-19 incidence and symptoms in 100 employees working at 11 clinics of the Clinical Hospital Centre (CHC) Rijeka, Croatia from 1 June to end December 2020. All of them were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and took sick leave, which lasted 13.6±2.6 days in average. This study also looks into the role of occupational medicine physicians in prospective monitoring of acute and long-acting consequences of COVID-19 that might occur in HCWs.
Highlights
University of Rijeka Faculty of Medicine, Rijeka, Croatia [Received in January 2021; Similarity Check in January 2021; Accepted in September 2021]
This study looks into the role of occupational medicine physicians in prospective monitoring of acute and long-acting consequences of COVID-19 that might occur in healthcare workers (HCWs)
The disease created a heavy burden on health care and its workers (HCWs), who are in direct contact with infected patients and often affected by COVID-19 and associated somatic and mental health problems (1–7)
Summary
The incidence of COVID-19 symptoms was analysed in 100 medical doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, cleaners, and other professions employed in various departments of CHC Rijeka who requested their OM specialist to acknowledge their COVID-19 as occupational disease between 1 June 2020 and 31 December 2020. The answers and PCR test results were received by e-mail or post after the participants completed their sick leave They were divided into 11 groups by workplace (surgery, emergency department, anaesthesiology, radiology, transfusion medicine, internal medicine, oncology, microbiology, dermatology, maintenance and administration, hospital pharmacy, ophthalmology, and clinic for infectious diseases) and classified by symptom severity as asymptomatic, mild, or moderate, depending on the number of self-reported COVID-19-related clinical symptoms. Moderate symptoms were considered those involving temperatures reaching 38–39 °C and prevalent fatigue, general weakness, dyspnoea, cough, stomach ache, diarrhoea, low back and other musculoskeletal pain, which lasted a week or so Asymptomatic were those who reported no symptoms but were in self-isolation due to direct contact with infected patients and had a positive PCR test. Conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
