Sir,
COVID-19 is a new emerging coronavirus infection that has spread to several countries [1]. Thailand is a country in Indochina that has experienced many imported cases of this new disease [2]. An important consideration is nosocomial infection with this disease. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at particular risk of infection during the current epidemic. Here we describe our experience of COVID-19 amongst HCWs in Thailand.
At the time of writing (21st February 2020), there were 35 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Thailand, including one HCW. The HCW is a nurse attendant and became infected during routine medical work in a Thai hospital. The HCW had contact with a patient with COVID-19 who had been diagnosed with dengue at the time. As dengue is not a respiratory infection, no respiratory infection control measures were in place for this patient. However, the hospitalized patient with dengue later received an additional diagnosis of COVID-19.
This experience shows that respiratory infection control has to be considered for any patient with a possible infection, regardless of whether or not they have overt respiratory symptoms. Indeed, it is now known that some patients with COVID-19 do not have fever or respiratory symptoms at the time of presentation [3]. COVID-19 can be easily missed in tropical countries, either because it occurs in conjunction with a common infectious disease (such as dengue), or because COVID-19 infection is misdiagnosed as another more common infection.
Conflict of interest statement
None declared.
Funding sources
None.
References
- 1.Hsia W. Emerging new coronavirus infection in Wuhan, China: situation in early 2020. Case Study Case Rep. 2020;10:8–9. [Google Scholar]
- 2.Sookaromdee P., Wiwanitkit V. Imported cases of 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infections in Thailand: mathematical modelling of the outbreak. Asian Pac J Trop Med. 2020;13:139–144. [Google Scholar]
- 3.Huang C., Wang Y., Li X., Ren L., Zhao J., Hu Y. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet. 2020;395:497–506. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30183-5. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]