key: cord-1008766-z7uc2f7b
authors: Hassanian-Moghaddam, Hossein; Zamani, Nasim; Kolahi, Ali-Asghar
title: COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers’ contamination and death: an international view
date: 2020-05-08
journal: Crit Care
DOI: 10.1186/s13054-020-02938-y
sha: 302a8847f2878b3d8d28e5a9a15e8cbd5e21aaab
doc_id: 1008766
cord_uid: z7uc2f7b

nan

as well as different protocols around release from the workplace to be quarantined.

In many countries, confirmation of disease is based on clinical characteristics and CT findings and not on possible exposure and laboratory confirmation. Many COVID-19 carriers therefore remain undetected, while HCPs on the frontlines face a high risk of contracting the disease. This includes HCPs working without sufficient PPE in ordinary departments where they face risk of exposure to unsuspected patients as well as HCPs in departments dedicated to confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released useful information on interim infection prevention and control recommendations for COVID-19 patients in healthcare facilities, but implementation may not be feasible in low-resource settings with high patient volumes [4] . Therefore, we must stay ahead of the game in preventing the transmission of COVID-19 to HCPs; otherwise, we will quickly run out of human resources even if we have enough supplies. Let us save our rescuers!

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and healthcare workers

Healthcare Workers Who Have Died of COVID-19

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Authors' contributions HHM helped in the conception and design of the study. AAK, HHM, and NZ contributed to the data collection. NZ helped in the first draft writing. All authors contributed to the final approval of the version to be submitted. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

The data is all presented in the text.Ethics approval and consent to participate Not applicable Consent for publication Not applicable

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Received: 13 April 2020 Accepted: 30 April 2020