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. 2009 Sep;15(9):1438-44.
doi: 10.3201/eid1509.081475.

Nurses' contacts and potential for infectious disease transmission

Helen Bernard  1 , Richela Fischer, Rafael T Mikolajczyk, Mirjam Kretzschmar, Manfred Wildner
Affiliations

Nurses' contacts and potential for infectious disease transmission

Helen Bernard et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2009 Sep.

Abstract

Nurses' contacts with potentially infectious persons probably place them at higher risk than the general population for infectious diseases. During an influenza pandemic, illness among nurses might result in staff shortage. We aimed to show the value of individual data from the healthcare sector for mathematical modeling of infectious disease transmission. Using a paper diary approach, we compared nurses' daily contacts (2-way conversation with >2 words or skin-to-skin contact) with those of matched controls from a representative population survey. Nurses (n = 129) reported a median of 40 contacts (85% work related), and controls (n = 129) reported 12 contacts (33% work related). For nurses, 51% of work-related contacts were with patients (74% involving skin-to-skin contact, and 63% lasted < or =15 minutes); 40% were with staff members (29% and 36%, respectively). Our data, used with simulation models, can help predict staff availability and provide information for pandemic preparedness planning.

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Figure
Figure
Total numbers of contacts for surveyed nurses and their matched controls from the general population, Bavaria, Germany, April–July 2007.
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