Risk of Secondary Household Transmission of COVID-19 from Health Care Workers in a Hospital in Spain.
Miren Remón-BerradeSara Guillen-AguinagaIsabel Sarrate-AdotMaria Pilar Garcia-GarciaMaria Del Carmen Lerga-BerruezoLaura Guillen-AguinagaFrancisco Guillen-GrimaPublished in: Epidemiolgia (Basel, Switzerland) (2021)
89 index cases were studied from 99 notified cases in health care workers (89.0%), excluding secondary cases or those who lived alone. Forty-six secondary cases confirmed by the laboratory were found among 326 household contacts, a secondary attack rate of 14.11% (95% CI 10.75-18.31), and 33 household contacts with acute infection symptoms without microbiologic confirmation 10.12% (95% CI 7.30-13.87). Considering all the cases, the secondary attack rate was 27.3 (95% CI 22.75-32.38). Risk factors were the gender and profession of the index case, the number of people living in the household, and the number of persons per bedroom. When the index case health worker used a single room, it had a protective effect, with an incidence rate ratio (IRR) of 0.493 (95% CI 0.246-0.985); Conclusions: The secondary attack rate found among household contacts of health care workers is high. The preventive isolation of health care workers in individual rooms in their house may reduce the transmission in their families.