Environmental Investigation of a Long-term Care Hospital with Respect to COVID-19

• 영문명: Environmental Investigation of a Long-term Care Hospital with Respect to COVID-19
• 발행기관: 한국환경보건학회
• 저자명: 박민우(Min Woo Park) 신승환(Seung Hwan Shin) 차정옥(Jeong Ok Cha) 임현정(Hyeon Jeong Lim) 김준년(Jun Nyun Kim)
• 간행물 정보: 『한국환경보건학회지』제46권 제5호, 599~609쪽, 전체 11쪽
• 주제분류: 공학 > 환경공학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2020.10.30

영문 초록

Objectives: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has rapidly become a global pandemic with over 26.4 million confirmed cases and approximately 871,000 fatalities worldwide as of this writing. In the Republic of Korea, disease clusters frequently occurred in long-term care hospitals where the majority of residents are elderly with underlying medical conditions. Despite the fact that public health authorities and local community health centers have put tremendous efforts into preventing the spread of disease, positive cases have continued to occur. Thus, the Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention rapid response team decided to conduct an environmental investigation of a long-term care hospital to identify whether environmental contamination has remained and contributed to the spread of COVID-19. Methods: An environmental investigation was conducted at Hospital A. The characteristics of the facility and its HVAC system were assessed by checking the layout and interviewing the people in charge. A total of 64 surface samples were collected from areas of concern, including patient rooms, toilets, elevators, and nurses’ station. These samples were tested by a regional health and environmental research institute using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results: All samples from Hospital A were confirmed to be negative. Through interviews with high-level personnel at the regional community health center, we found that extensive disinfection is frequently performed on potentially contaminated areas in Hospital A in accordance with government guidelines. Conclusion: The environmental control measures implemented in Hospital A had been sufficient for mitigating the risk of further infection, suggesting that such measures may also be effective for other long-term health care facilities.

목차

I. Introduction

II. Materials and Methods

III. Results

IV. Discussion

V. Conclusions

Acknowledgment

References

키워드

COVID-19 elderly patients environmental investigation long-term care hospital RT-PCR