Braving the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic – Quandary of Health-Care Workers

Abstract

Context

Determining how bad health-care providers have been affected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 19 (SARS-CoV-19) pandemic is difficult because governments and organizations have not released this data.

Aims

The aim of the study was to determine the number of health-care workers infected and dead globally due to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Subjects and Methods

To circumvent these issues, an unconventional approach using Google's programming platform was adopted to aggregate relevant articles reporting the number of confirmed cases and deaths among health-care workers. Locally sourced country-specific data were ensured by individually searching the regional domains of 179 countries.

Results

Reports covering 67 countries showed that 99,847 health-care workers (HCWs) have been reported to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus, with a majority reported in Europe. This included confirmed reports of 1732 doctors and 348 nurses. Five hundred and thirty-eight deaths were reported in 32 countries, amounting to a mortality among HCWs globally of 4%.

Conclusions

Although this number might be an underrepresentation of the actual figures out there, it underscores the dire reality of the situation. The information provided is paramount for policymakers to improve services among this vulnerable group.

Keywords

Coronavirus disease 2019 - doctors - health-care workers - nurses - severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2

Publication History

Received: 19 May 2020

Accepted: 25 June 2020

Article published online:
17 May 2021

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