Community spread cause of virus exposure in health workers

Health care workers’ exposure to COVID-19 most often comes from community spread, not their occupational activities, according to a study conducted by Emory University released Thursday.

Researchers from Emory in Atlanta, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Rush University in Chicago and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed the antibodies of more than 24,000 health care workers in four large health care systems between April and August 2020. The participants also answered questionnaires about their occupational activities and possible exposures to coronavirus both inside and outside the workplace.

The researchers found that community exposures were most strongly associated with positive antibody tests in the health care workers, and that taking care of coronavirus patients was not significantly associated with positive antibodies.

The full study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

This article was first published in Business Insurance.

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