Abstract
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread with alarming speed, infecting millions globally, including Eswatini. Despite the institutionalization of measures by the Ministry of Health (MoH) to fight the pandemic, the cumulative number of people infected with COVID-19 has kept increasing daily. We sought to assess risk factors for COVID-19 infections among Health care workers (HCWs) in selected health facilities of the Lubombo region of Eswatini. Methods: A cross-sectional design and systematic stratified sampling were used to select the participants. Results: The study enrolled 333 HCWs, with the majority (201, 60.4%) being females, and the participants’ mean age was 33 years. The study showed that not having an isolation arrangement in a health facility for people suspected to have COVID-19 presents risk to HCWs for COVID-19 (Crude Odds Ratio (COR) = 2.5, 95%CI: 1.0–6.2), p = 0.50; Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 3.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0–8.7, p = 0.038). Likewise, HCWs who rarely followed infection prevention and control (IPC) measures were at higher risk of COVID-19 infection than those who followed such measures (COR = 4.2, 95%CI: 1.1–17.2, p = 0.041; AOR = 6.5, 95%CI: 1.4–30.0, p = 0.016), and HCWs exposed to a colleague diagnosed with COVID-19 were at higher risk of being infected themselves (AOR = 11.4; 95%CI: 0.9–135.7; p = 0.054). Conclusion: An active COVID-19 symptoms screening, triage and isolation arrangement for suspected COVID-19 clients for all clients entering the facility increases protection of HCWs from COVID-19. Reinforcement of all infection prevention and control measures to prevent exposures from infected patients and colleagues is essential.
Highlights
Clinical management of patients while implementing adequate infection prevention and control (IPC) measures during the COVID-19 pandemic is still challenging in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and it is an ongoing agenda for Health care workers (HCWs) in healthcare settings
Four (4) (5.2%) of the HCWs who worked in facilities with an isolation ward/designated space had been contracted COVID-19compared with 6 (8.3%) of those working in an isolation ward/designated space
In order to prevent hospital-acquired infections in the hospital among HCWs, infection control measures for COVID-19 that apply to the community, such as social distancing and universal masking, must be meticulously applied
Summary
COVID-19 infection among HCWs may be a function of health facilities and from community and presymptomatic contacts. They can acquire COVID-19 from patients, colleagues, family members, friends, and social events [10, 11].This study is aimed to assess risk factors of COVID-19 in the local context, which includes barriers and missed opportunities in; Practices (handwashing/sanitizing), Inadequate Training and Knowledge on infection prevention and control (IPC), improper use of PPE, availability and consistency in the use of PPE, history of a diagnosed patient, colleague and family member of HCWs, pre-existing medical conditions, as well as sociodemographic factors to understand the risk factors for COVID-19 infection in a regional health system. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread with alarming speed, infecting millions globally, including Eswatini. We sought to assess risk factors for COVID-19 infections among Health care workers (HCWs) in selected health facilities of the Lubombo region of Eswatini
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