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Review
. 2021 Sep 28;72(3):240-243.
doi: 10.2478/aiht-2021-72-3520.

Covid-19 as occupational disease in healthcare workers: a brief review of cases in the Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka, Croatia

Hrvoje Lalić  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Covid-19 as occupational disease in healthcare workers: a brief review of cases in the Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka, Croatia

Hrvoje Lalić. Arh Hig Rada Toksikol. .

Abstract
in English, Croatian

The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a tremendous impact on every facet of private life and work organisation in virtually all social and economic sectors worldwide. People who stand on the first line of defence are healthcare workers (HCWs) risking exposure to infected patients. However, even though they are often affected by COVID-19 and associated somatic and mental health problems, COVID-19 as a new illness was not immediately acknowledged as occupational disease. This is why several groups of HCWs contacted their occupational medicine physicians in 2020 with a request to register the infection with SARS-CoV-2 as occupational disease. In an attempt to support their appeals and show that hospital workers have a high occupational risk of COVID-19, this study presents COVID-19 incidence and symptoms in 100 employees working at 11 clinics of the Clinical Hospital Centre (CHC) Rijeka, Croatia from 1 June to end December 2020. All of them were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and took sick leave, which lasted 13.6±2.6 days in average. This study also looks into the role of occupational medicine physicians in prospective monitoring of acute and long-acting consequences of COVID-19 that might occur in HCWs.

Bolest uzrokovana koronavirusom (COVID-19) pandemija je koja ugrožava živote mnogih pojedinaca i organizacija u gotovo svim društvenim i gospodarskim sektorima diljem svijeta. Pri tome, međutim, najviše stradavaju ljudi medicinske struke, koji su na prvoj crti obrane izloženi bolesnicima i zaraznom materijalu. Kao česte žrtve virusa, oni su izloženi brojnim somatskim i psihosocijalnim problemima, no kako početkom 2020. godine infekcija SARS-CoV-2 nije još bila uvrštena među profesionalne bolesti, brojni zdravstveni radnici zatražili su od medicine rada priznavanje COVIDA-19 kao profesionalne bolesti. Kako bismo poduprli njihove opravdane zahtjeve, napravili smo kratak osvrt na zdravstveno stanje 100 zdravstvenih radnika zaraženih SARS-CoV-2, koji su od lipnja do kraja prosinca 2020. radili u pojedinim odjelima Kliničkoga bolničkog centra (KBC) u Rijeci. Opisali smo incidenciju i simptome COVID-19 u 11 kliničkih odjela KBC-a i naglasili važnu ulogu medicine rada u procjenjivanju akutnih i mogućih dugotrajnih posljedica COVIDA-19, koje se učestalo pojavljuju u zdravstvenih radnika.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; incidence; incidencija; medicina rada; occupational medicine; simptomi; symptoms.

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