#0036 Prevalence and molecular epidemiology of CMV and EBV among nurses working in pediatrics, transplantology, and primary health care
Prevalence of CMV and EBV among nurses in Poland
Healthcare workers are often exposed to viral, bacterial, and fugal pathogens while performing different therapeutic, nursing, and diagnostic services. Moreover, factors like disturbed circadian rhythms, stress, tension, and work overload disturb the nurses’ immunological system making them vulnerable to opportunistic infections.
Viruses like the cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) are two such opportunistic viruses belonging to a family of double-stranded DNA viruses, the Herpesviridae. Hospital administrations assume that their staff and nurses are following the necessary safety guidelines and do not test their staff for exposure to CMV and EBV.
To see whether the current precautions are enough, we investigated the prevalence of CMV and EBV infections among 90 nurses working in pediatrics, transplantology, and primary health care wards, where they have a higher risk of exposure to CMV and EBV. Additionally, 30 women not working in healthcare or with children were selected as the control group. We tested the blood from all 120 study participants for CMV and EBV IgG and IgM antibodies and DNA. The presence of specific IgG antibodies indicates a prior infection whereas the presence of specific IgM antibodies and/or presence of the organism’s DNA indicates a recent or current infection.
We observed that the prevalence of CMV and EBV IgG antibodies were similar in both the nurses’ and control groups. CMV and EBV DNA were detected in only 2% and 5.5% of the nurses, respectively. This means that the nurses’ occupation or specific roles did not put them at higher risk of contracting CMV and EBV infections.
We did, however, observe an interesting trend. CMV antibody titers increased with age and years of work for pediatric nurses, while EBV antibody titers increased with age and years of work for pediatric and primary healthcare nurses. No such trend was observed for nurses working in tranplantology.
Based on our observations, we feel that further studies are needed to determine the prevalence of CMV and EBV among healthcare workers in Poland. Moreover, we also need to study the consequences of long-term exposure to CMV and EBV as this will give us insights into the specific risk that nurses are exposed to when working for longer periods in specific departments.
Link to the original journal article:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/1348-9585.12112
Title of the paper:
Prevalence and molecular epidemiology of CMV and EBV among nurses working in pediatrics, transplantology, and primary health care
Authors:
Patrycja W. Zając, Bożena Czarkowska-Pączek, Aleksandra Wyczałkowska-Tomasik
