More than one in ten COVID-19 patients infected in hospital in UK's
first pandemic wave, study finds

Date:
August 13, 2021
Source:
Lancaster University
Summary:
More than one in ten COVID-19 patients in 314 UK hospitals caught
the infection in hospital during the first pandemic wave, say
researchers conducting the world's largest study of severe COVID-19.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
More than one in ten COVID-19 patients in 314 UK hospitals caught the
infection in hospital during the first pandemic wave say researchers
conducting the world's largest study of severe COVID-19.


==========================================================================
The research into hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) was led by Dr
Jonathan Read from Lancaster University with colleagues from other
UK universities including the Universities of Liverpool, Edinburgh,
Birmingham and Imperial College London, and is published in The Lancet
today, Thursday August 12th.

The researchers examined records of COVID-19 patients in UK hospitals
enrolled in the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging
Infections Consortium (ISARIC) Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK
(CCP-UK) study, who became ill before 1st August 2020.

They found that at least 11.1% of COVID-19 patients in 314 UK hospitals
were infected after admission. The proportion of COVID-19 patients
infected in hospital also rose to between 16% and 20% in mid-May 2020,
long after the peak of admissions in the first wave.

The researchers said: "We estimate between 5,699 and 11,862 patients
admitted in the first wave were infected during their stay in
hospital. This is, unfortunately, likely to be an underestimate, as
we did not include patients who may have been infected but discharged
before they could be diagnosed." Dr Jonathan Read, lead author at
Lancaster University, said "Controlling viruses like SARS-CoV-2 (the
virus that causes COVID-19) has been difficult in the past, so the
situation could have been much worse. However, infection control should
remain a priority in hospitals and care facilities." Dr Chris Green, University of Birmingham, said: "There are likely to be a number of
reasons why many patients were infected in these care settings. These
include the large numbers of patients admitted to hospitals with limited facilities for case isolation, limited access to rapid and reliable
diagnostic testing in the early stages of the outbreak, the challenges
around access to and best use of PPE, our understanding of when patients
are most infectious in their illness, some misclassification of cases
due to presentation with atypical symptoms, and an under-appreciation
of the role of airborne transmission." There were marked differences
in the numbers of patients infected in hospital according to the type
of care provided. Hospitals providing acute and general care had lower proportions of hospital acquired infections (9.7%) than residential
community care hospitals (61.9%) and mental health hospitals (67.5%),
which reflects the outbreaks seen in care-homes.

Professor Calum Semple, University of Liverpool, said: "The reasons
for the variation between settings that provide the same type of care
requires urgent investigation to identify and promote best infection
control practice. Research has now been commission to find out what was
done well and what lessons need to be learned to improve patient safety."
Dr Anne Marie Docherty, University of Edinburgh, said: "The underlying
reasons for these high rates of transmission in hospitals at the peak of
the first wave must be investigated, so that we can improve safety and
outcomes for our patients. Rates are considerably lower a year on, and
people should not be deterred from attending hospital if they are unwell." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Lancaster_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Jonathan M Read, Chris A Green, Ewen M Harrison, Annemarie
B Docherty,
Sebastian Funk, Janet Harrison, Michelle Girvan, Hayley E Hardwick,
Lance Turtle, Jake Dunning, Jonathan S Nguyen-Van-Tam, Peter JM
Openshaw, J Kenneth Baillie, Malcolm G Semple. Hospital-acquired
SARS-CoV-2 infection in the UK's first COVID-19 pandemic wave. The
Lancet, 2021; DOI: 10.1016/ S0140-6736(21)01786-4 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210813100309.htm

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