Severity scoring system of COVID-19 in Egyptian medical personnel versus non-medical personnel: a prospective cohort study

Abstract

Abstract Background Few studies tried to detect the risk of developing COVID-19 (corona virus disease 2019) between different groups of workers. Health care workers are more likely to have severe form of COVID infection. The objective of our study is to compare the severity scoring system of COVID infection between medical and non-medical personnel by CT (computed tomography). This study started from 1 May, 2020, to 30 December, 2021. CT study of the chest for 1200 infected patients with COVID-19 (600 were medical stuff and 600 persons of non-medical staff) was done in five health quarantine centres in Egypt. CT findings were reviewed in relation to the severity of symptoms. The results of the two groups were compared to each other. Results CT findings were more frequent and more severe in the medical staff group, including that the number of consolidative patches mixed with areas of ground glass attenuation in medical staff group was (37.2%) versus non-medical staff group was (22.2%), with p-value (*0.001), diffuse lobar involvement was in (150 severe cases) in medical staff group versus in 67 severe cases of non-medical staff group and had significant difference (p value *0.005), fibrosis (p value *0.002) and more opportunity to get severe form of infection increased in medical personnel rather than control group (p value *0.001) which may be due to limited health care facilities in protection against infection especially in developing countries and more contact during work time with infected persons and high viral load. Conclusion The current study results show that severity score is higher in the medical personnel than non-medial personnel.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Medical personnel
• CT (computed tomography)