Sir,
COVID-19 is a new emerging coronavirus infection that has spread to several countries [
1
]. Thailand is a country in Indochina that has experienced many imported cases of this new disease [2
]. An important consideration is nosocomial infection with this disease. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at particular risk of infection during the current epidemic. Here we describe our experience of COVID-19 amongst HCWs in Thailand.At the time of writing (21st February 2020), there were 35 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Thailand, including one HCW. The HCW is a nurse attendant and became infected during routine medical work in a Thai hospital. The HCW had contact with a patient with COVID-19 who had been diagnosed with dengue at the time. As dengue is not a respiratory infection, no respiratory infection control measures were in place for this patient. However, the hospitalized patient with dengue later received an additional diagnosis of COVID-19.
This experience shows that respiratory infection control has to be considered for any patient with a possible infection, regardless of whether or not they have overt respiratory symptoms. Indeed, it is now known that some patients with COVID-19 do not have fever or respiratory symptoms at the time of presentation [
3
]. COVID-19 can be easily missed in tropical countries, either because it occurs in conjunction with a common infectious disease (such as dengue), or because COVID-19 infection is misdiagnosed as another more common infection.Conflict of interest statement
None declared.
Funding sources
None.
References
- Emerging new coronavirus infection in Wuhan, China: situation in early 2020.Case Study Case Rep. 2020; 10: 8-9
- Imported cases of 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infections in Thailand: mathematical modelling of the outbreak.Asian Pac J Trop Med. 2020; 13: 139-144
- Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China.Lancet. 2020; 395: 497-506
Article Info
Publication History
Published online: February 27, 2020
Accepted:
February 23,
2020
Received:
February 22,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
