Which preventive measures might protect health care workers from SARS?
BACKGROUND
Despite the use of a series of preventive measures, a high incidence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was observed among health care workers (HCWs) during the SARS epidemic. This study aimed to determine which preventive measures may have been effective in protecting HCWs from infection, and which were not effective.


METHODS
A retrospective study was performed among 758 'frontline' health care workers who cared for SARS patients at the Second Affiliated Hospital and the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. The HCWs with IgG against SARS and those without IgG against SARS were respectively defined as the "case group" and the "control group", and logistic regression was conducted to explore the risk factors for SARS infection in HCWs.


RESULTS
After adjusting for age, gender, marital status, educational level, professional title, and the department in which an individual worked, the results of a multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that incidence of SARS among HCWs was significantly and positively associated with: performing tracheal intubations for SARS patients, methods used for air ventilation in wards, avoiding face-to-face interaction with SARS patients, the number of pairs of gloves worn by HCWs, and caring for serious SARS cases.


CONCLUSIONS
Some measures, particularly good air ventilation in SARS wards, may be effective in minimizing or preventing SARS transmission among HCWs in hospitals.
Chen
Wei-Qing
WQ
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, 74 Zhongshan Road II, Guangzhou, PR China. chenwq@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Ling
Wen-Hua
WH
Lu
Ci-Yong
CY
Hao
Yuan-Tao
YT
Lin
Zhong-Ning
ZN
Ling
Li
L
Huang
Jian
J
Li
Gang
G
Yan
Guang-Mei
GM
D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D017758:Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission