WHICH HEALTH CARE WORKERS WERE MOST AFFECTED DURING THE SPRING 2009 H1N1 PANDEMIC?

This study was aimed to identify health care workers most at risk for H1N1 infection before vaccination and compare health outcomes after vaccination. In this study the indices used to gauge employee health were laboratory-confirmed H1N1 data, laboratory-confirmed influenza A data, and employee sick hours recorded. This was a conducted in 2 phases, phase 1 was about absenteeism records for 6,093 hospital employees before vaccine administration were analyzed according to department and employee position during the spring 2009 H1N1 pandemic. The records of 123 confirmed reports of laboratory-confirmed influenza A or novel H1N1 infections in hospital employees were also analyzed. Two thirds of the H1N1 cases occurred during June, 34 in physicians and medical personnel (6.7%), 36 in nurses and clinical technicians (2.2%), 39 in Administrative & Support Personnel (infection rate = 1.2%), 3 in Social Workers & Counselors (infection rate = 1.0%), 8 in Housekeeping & Food Services (infection rate = 2.7%), and 3 in Security & Transportation (infection rate=3.9%). When analyzed according to department, the adult emergency department (infection rate = 28.8%) and the pediatric emergency department (infection rate = 25.0%) had the highest infection rates per department. The reported cases of H1N1 in physicians and medical personnel had a higher infection rate than other employee positions, whereas ED personnel had the highest infection rate.