Healthcare workers acquired COVID-19 disease from patients? An investigation by phylogenomics

R C W Wong; M K P Lee; G K H Siu; L K Lee; J S L Leung; E C M Leung; Y I I Ho; R W M Lai

doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2021.05.017

Healthcare workers acquired COVID-19 disease from patients? An investigation by phylogenomics

J Hosp Infect. 2021 Sep:115:59-63. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2021.05.017. Epub 2021 Jul 20.

Authors

R C W Wong¹, M K P Lee², G K H Siu³, L K Lee³, J S L Leung³, E C M Leung², Y I I Ho², R W M Lai²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, China. Electronic address: wcw372@ha.org.hk.
² Department of Microbiology, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, China.
³ Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR, China.

Abstract

The increasing number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the community has posed a significant epidemic pressure on healthcare settings. When healthcare workers (HCWs) acquire COVID-19, contact tracing and epidemiological investigation might not be adequate for determining the source of transmission. Here, we report a phylogenetic investigation involving two infected HCWs and nine patients to determine whether patient-to-HCW transmission had occurred in a hospital without a previous COVID-19 outbreak. This is the first study to apply phylogenomics to investigate suspected nosocomial transmission in a region with low prevalence of COVID-19. Our results do not support the occurrence of direct patient-to-HCW transmission.

Keywords: COVID-19; Epidemiology; Healthcare workers; Phylogenomics; SARS-CoV-2; Whole-genome sequencing.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Disease Outbreaks
Health Personnel
Humans
Phylogeny
SARS-CoV-2