Two outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 in department of surgery in a Wuhan hospital

Shicheng Gao; Yufeng Yuan; Yong Xiong; Yongxi Zhang; Liping Deng; Tielong Chen; Hengning Ke; Xinghuan Wang

doi:10.1016/j.infpip.2020.100065

Two outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 in department of surgery in a Wuhan hospital

Infect Prev Pract. 2020 May 15;2(3):100065. doi: 10.1016/j.infpip.2020.100065. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Authors

Shicheng Gao¹, Yufeng Yuan², Yong Xiong¹, Yongxi Zhang¹, Liping Deng¹, Tielong Chen¹, Hengning Ke^{1

3}, Xinghuan Wang^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Infectious Disease, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
² Department of Hepatobilliary Surgery, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
³ Training Center of AIDS Prevention and Cure of Hubei Province, Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
⁴ Center of Evidence-Based and Translational Medicine, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
⁵ Department of Urology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in China, attracted a large number of medical staff to help in the city's hospitals and this put them at a high risk of infection. We describe twenty medical staff who were diagnosed with COVID-19 within one week in the department of surgery in a Wuhan hospital. Epidemiological investigation of these cases identified misdiagnosed patients (source of infection), an inappropriate clinical meeting and working without wearing face masks to be the causes of the outbreaks. This report emphasizes the importance of wearing a facemask and applying other standard infection control precautions to protect medical personnel from infection with the virus.

Keywords: Coronary virus; Nosocomial infection; Pneumonia; Prevention.