Clinical medicine (London, England)
-
Multicenter Study
Prevalence and socio-demographic factors of SARS-CoV-2 antibody in multi-ethnic healthcare workers.
Healthcare workers are particularly susceptible to developing COVID-19 owing to close and frequent contact with COVID-19 patients. This cross-sectional study aimed to describe prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among healthcare workers within a hospital trust and examine factors associated with increased prevalence of this antibody. ⋯ This large study has described prevalence of recent exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers and determined associations including ethnicity, professional groups and geographical areas within healthcare settings. This information will be useful in future COVID-19 studies examining the role of antibody testing both in general populations and in healthcare settings.
-
Multicenter Study
COVID-19: Causes of anxiety and wellbeing support needs of healthcare professionals in the UK: A cross-sectional survey.
COVID-19 has caused acute changes in healthcare delivery; this may impact mental health and wellbeing needs of healthcare professionals (HCPs). ⋯ Anxiety levels in HCPs significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and the main causes were identified. Many HCPs felt there was inadequate support and identified what support they needed. Implementing effective strategies to support HCPs' unmet wellbeing needs are required as a matter of urgency.
-
Appropriate dissemination of information to the general public is a key component of the pandemic response. In 2018, recorded infection control advice messages were affixed to 30% of England's automated hospital switchboards during the seasonal influenza and norovirus outbreaks. ⋯ As of May 2020, 85% of NHS trusts made use of infection control messages; on average, these delayed healthcare professionals by 59.4 seconds per call, but had no clear association with patient outcomes from COVID-19. An ongoing national switchboard quality improvement project seeks to establish a gold standard whereby healthcare professionals with urgent enquiries can press 'X' to skip past infection control messages and have their calls triaged immediately.
-
Multicenter Study
Von Willebrand factor (vWF): marker of endothelial damage and thrombotic risk in COVID-19?
COVID-19 infection is characterised, among other features, by a prothrombotic state with high rate of venous thromboembolism (VTE), D-dimer, and fibrinogen levels. Clinical observations have also highlighted that these patients have elevated von Willebrand factor (vWF) and factor VIIIc. ⋯ Very high levels of vWF and factor VIIIc are common in COVID-19 patients, comparable to levels in severely septic non-COVID ICU patients. This could contribute to the hypercoagulable state and increased VTE rate in COVID-19. Further studies are needed to evaluate the use of vWF for stratifying thrombotic risk in COVID-19 and to determine if elevated vWF is contributing to disease pathogenesis.