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  • COVID-19 Findings and Precautions for Eye Care Providers

    By Lynda Seminara
    Selected By: Stephen D. McLeod, MD
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    Journal Highlights

    Ophthalmology, September 2020

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    Qiao et al. aimed to estimate the incidence of symptomatic COVID-19 among eye professionals in Wuhan, China, with the goal of improving their safety and minimizing exposure risk. Results depicted the connection with direct patient care and suggested other risk factors, including older age and sleep deprivation. The transmission rate declined with widespread use of personal protective equipment (PPE), good hand hygiene, and the lower pa­tient volume from Wuhan’s lockdown.

    For this cross-sectional case-control study, the authors obtained a list of eye care professionals with symptomatic COVID-19, using the key informant method. The health care providers were diagnosed through February 2020 and included ophthalmologists, ophthal­mic nurses, and technicians involved in patient care since the start of the outbreak. The diagnosis had been established by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and serum antibody testing. For each positive COVID case within a department, there were three or four control participants, chosen randomly from the same de­partment, who tested negative for the virus and had no symptoms.

    Twenty-eight eye care professionals from 10 hospitals contracted COVID and had pulmonary symptoms. Signifi­cant differences were found between af­fected professionals and controls. Those in the COVID-positive group tended to be older (p = .01), had practiced for longer (p = .001), were more likely to be sleep deprived (p = .008), spent more time with patients confirmed or suspected to have COVID (p = .002), and had less access to PPE (p = .02).

    The incidence of symptomatic COVID among the 10 hospitals was 2.52%, and the rate of positive cases was similar for the three categories of professionals. Hospitals with the high­est incidence were located closer to the Huanan Seafood Market, a purported epicenter of the outbreak. Of the 28 professionals who contracted COVID, eight had a severe case. Most cases (n = 20), including all that were severe, had been diagnosed before Feb. 7. There were three deaths; all were ophthalmol­ogists who worked at the same hospital.

    Given the risk of COVID-19 among eye care professionals, PPE use is highly recommended, said the authors. Once PPE use was emphasized, and patient visits were limited to urgent issues, only two cases occurred.

    The original article can be found here.