title: Occupational exposures to influenza among healthcare workers in the United States.
abstract: The objective of this study is to estimate the annual number of occupational exposures to influenza among healthcare workers that result from providing direct and supportive care to influenza patients in acute care, home care and long-term care settings. Literature review was used to identify healthcare utilization for influenza, and worker activity patterns. This information was used, with Monte Carlo simulation, to tabulate the mean annual number of occupational exposures. Given a medium-sized epidemic with a 6% annual symptomatic influenza incidence proportion, the mean number of occupational exposures was estimated to be 81.8 million annually. Among the approximately 14 million healthcare workers, this corresponds to 5.8 exposures per worker annually, on average. Exposures, however, are likely concentrated among subsets of healthcare workers. Occupational exposures were most numerous in ambulatory care settings (38%), followed by long-term care facilities (30%) and home care settings (21%). The annual number of occupational exposures to influenza is high, but not every occupational exposure will result in infection. Some infection control activities, like patient isolation, can reduce the number of occupational exposures.
authors.affiliation: a Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago , Chicago , Illinois.
authors.forename: Rachael M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: a Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago , Chicago , Illinois.
authors.forename: Yulin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006699:Home Care Services; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000635:transmission*; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States
keywords: Ambulatory care; exposures; healthcare workers; home care; influenza; long-term care