Epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in medical staff members of neurosurgery departments in Hubei province: A multicentre descriptive study

  1. Qiangping Wang
  2. Xing Huang
  3. Yansen Bai
  4. Xuan Wang
  5. Haijun Wang
  6. Xuebin Hu
  7. Feng Wang
  8. Xianke Wang
  9. Jincao Chen
  10. Qianxue Chen
  11. Xiaobing Jiang
  12. Hongyang Zhao

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Abstract

Background

The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has infected a large number of healthcare workers in Hubei province, China. In addition to infectious and respiratory disease physicians, many doctors in other medical fields have been infected.

Methods

We prospectively collected epidemiological data on medical staff members who are working in neurosurgery departments in 107 hospitals in Hubei province through self-reported questionnaires or telephone interviews. Data of medical staff members with laboratory-confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were analysed. The final follow-up date was 1 March 2020.

Findings

A total of 5,442 neurosurgery department medical staff members were surveyed. One hundred and twenty cases, involving 54 doctors and 66 nurses, were found to have been infected with SARS-CoV-2. The overall incidence was 2.2%. These cases were concentrated in 26 centres, 16 of which had admitted a total of 59 patients with COVID-19 complicated by craniocerebral disease. Medical staff members in centres receiving COVID-19 patients had a higher risk of contracting infection than those in centres not receiving COVID-19 patients (relative risk: 19.6; 95% confidence interval: 12.6–30.6). Contact with either COVID-19 patients (62.5%, 75/120) or infected colleagues (30.8%, 37/120) was the most common mode of transmission. About 78.3% (94/120) of the infected cases wore surgical masks, whereas 20.8% (25/120) failed to use protection when exposed to the source of infection. Severe infections were observed in 11.7% (14/120) of the cases, with one death (0.8%, 1/120). All the infected medical staff members had been discharged from the hospital. A total of 1,287 medical staff members were dispatched to participate in the frontline response to COVID-19 under level 2 protection of whom one was infected. Medical staff members who took inadequate protection had a higher risk of contracting infection than those using level 2 protection (relative risk: 36.9; 95% confidence interval: 5.2–263.6).

Conclusions

Neurosurgical staff members in Hubei province were seriously affected by COVID-19. Level 2 protection and strengthening of protective measures are likely to be effective in preventing medical workers from being infected.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.20.20064899: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The study was supported by the Neurosurgical Branch of Hubei Medical Association and approved by the institutional ethics board of Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China (No. 20200029).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Data analysis: All statistical analyses were conducted using the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 19.0 software (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA).
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)
    Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.04.20.20064899v1 on medRxiv