tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
J Hosp Infect
. 2023 Feb 2;S0195-6701(23)00032-4.
doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2023.01.011. Online ahead of print.
Epidemiology of healthcare-associated SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in Germany between March 2020 and May 2022
Beneditta Suwono[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Michael Brandl[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Jane Hecht[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Tim Eckmanns[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Sebastian Haller[SUP] 2 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Outbreaks in healthcare facilities played a pivotal role in the course of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We aimed to investigate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreaks in hospitals, outpatient care, and rehabilitation facilities in Germany from March 2020 to May 2022. We used data from the German mandatory notification system to describe outbreaks by number of cases and case fatality ratio (CFR), and outbreak cases by age and gender. With Pearson correlation, we compared the dynamics of cases in the general population with cases in healthcare-associated (HAI) SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks before and after the start of the vaccination campaign. Additionally, we used a counterfactual scenario to estimate numbers of prevented HAI cases, using the phase before vaccination as baseline. By the end of May 2022, we observed 8,941 healthcare-associated outbreaks with 73,626 cases, 51,504 in hospitals, 15,524 in outpatient care, and 6,598 in rehabilitation facilities. Median number of cases per outbreak was 4 (range 2 - 342) and cases were more frequently reported in women with 46,818 (63.6%). We found an overall CFR of 8.1%, higher in men (12.4%) than in women (5.7%). After the vaccination campaign was fully introduced, the association between increasing incidence in the general population and consecutive outbreak cases was decreased by factor 10. Furthermore, our counterfactual analysis suggests that more than 55,000 outbreak cases could be prevented until the end of 2021. The vaccination campaign in combination with non-pharmaceutical measures was key to reduce number, size and CFR of healthcare-associated outbreaks.
. 2023 Feb 2;S0195-6701(23)00032-4.
doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2023.01.011. Online ahead of print.
Epidemiology of healthcare-associated SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in Germany between March 2020 and May 2022
Beneditta Suwono[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Michael Brandl[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Jane Hecht[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Tim Eckmanns[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Sebastian Haller[SUP] 2 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 36738991
- DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2023.01.011
Abstract
Outbreaks in healthcare facilities played a pivotal role in the course of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We aimed to investigate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreaks in hospitals, outpatient care, and rehabilitation facilities in Germany from March 2020 to May 2022. We used data from the German mandatory notification system to describe outbreaks by number of cases and case fatality ratio (CFR), and outbreak cases by age and gender. With Pearson correlation, we compared the dynamics of cases in the general population with cases in healthcare-associated (HAI) SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks before and after the start of the vaccination campaign. Additionally, we used a counterfactual scenario to estimate numbers of prevented HAI cases, using the phase before vaccination as baseline. By the end of May 2022, we observed 8,941 healthcare-associated outbreaks with 73,626 cases, 51,504 in hospitals, 15,524 in outpatient care, and 6,598 in rehabilitation facilities. Median number of cases per outbreak was 4 (range 2 - 342) and cases were more frequently reported in women with 46,818 (63.6%). We found an overall CFR of 8.1%, higher in men (12.4%) than in women (5.7%). After the vaccination campaign was fully introduced, the association between increasing incidence in the general population and consecutive outbreak cases was decreased by factor 10. Furthermore, our counterfactual analysis suggests that more than 55,000 outbreak cases could be prevented until the end of 2021. The vaccination campaign in combination with non-pharmaceutical measures was key to reduce number, size and CFR of healthcare-associated outbreaks.