Study of Demographic Profile, Comorbidities, Role of Hydroxychloroquine Prophylaxis and Outcomes of COVID-19 Positive Healthcare Workers at a Tertiary Care Center in Southern Rajasthan

Abstract

Background: In December 2019, a new respiratory tract infecting agent emerged in Wuhan city of China, known as the coronavirus. There are limited studies regarding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in healthcare workers (HCWs). Therefore, the present study was aimed to determine the demographic profile, comorbidities, hydroxychloroquine as prophylaxis and outcomes of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed COVID-19 HCWs.
Material and methods: This study was an observational retrospective study carried out over a period of 10 months from 15th March, 2020 to 15th January, 2021 in 350 RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 HCWs who were in home isolation or admitted in dedicated COVID hospital. Results: We observed that majority of HCWs were in the age group 20-39 years (66.58%), were males (69.14%) and from urban areas (72.86%). Only few had comorbidities (3.42%), took hydroxychloroquine as prophylaxis (5.71%) and mortality was 0.57%. About 46.29% of the HCWs were doctors and 28.40% of the doctors were
from Medicine. Conclusion: From the present study, we conclude that HCWs affected by COVID-19 are mainly young adult male physicians from urban areas, without significant comorbidities. The outcome in COVID-19 positive HCWs is favorable due to better awareness, prompt diagnosis and treatment. The results of this study will be useful in knowing the most vulnerable section of HCWs.