CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–March 30, 2010. During the H1N1 pandemic almost half of the reported H1N1cases in hospital health care workers occurred in emergency medicine, pediatrics, ambulatory care and anesthesiology, with emergency medicine workers having the highest infection rate. This is according to new findings published today in the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness journal.
“The peak of the H1N1 pandemic in health care personnel lagged slightly behind the peak of the pandemic in the community, except in the emergency department – where the peak closely corresponded to the community,” said study lead author Cynthia Santos, Emergency Preparedness Research Fellow of Weill Cornell Medical School. “This suggests that emergency department workers were at the forefront of the pandemic, and we hope that this study will be of value for medical directors to identify the workers most vulnerable to H1N1.”
Employee data from five hospitals prior to vaccination were analyzed according to departmental unit during the spring 2009 H1N1 pandemic. A total of 123 lab confirmed cases of H1N1 were found. The study found that 49 percent of the H1N1 cases occurred in hospital departments that together comprised 19 percent of the total health care workers. The health care workers in this group are emergency medicine, pediatrics, ambulatory care, intensive care units and anesthesiology.
The AMA also announced today that it is the exclusive publisher and distributor of the AMA’s Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, formerly published by Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins. The journal’s Web site
will remain the same, but a more sophisticated platform is being developed to help improve the journal’s visibility and engagement with the medical and public health community. The journal will continue to publish ahead of print important studies that can help emergency response health care professionals.
Source: ama-assn.org
