Modelling the transmission of infectious diseases inside hospital bays: implications for COVID-19
| Autor: | Raluca Eftimie, David Moreno Martos, Benjamin J. Parcell |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
Periodic testing Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Context (language use) 02 engineering and technology Disease Asymptomatic Communicable Diseases COVID-19 Testing 0502 economics and business nosocomial infections QA1-939 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering medicine Prevalence Humans Asymptomatic Infections hospital bay size Cross Infection business.industry Transmission (medicine) SARS-CoV-2 Applied Mathematics 05 social sciences computational predictions COVID-19 General Medicine Models Theoretical Hospitals United Kingdom Computational Mathematics Modeling and Simulation Communicable disease transmission Emergency medicine 020201 artificial intelligence & image processing medicine.symptom General Agricultural and Biological Sciences business mathematical model TP248.13-248.65 Mathematics Loss of life 050203 business & management Biotechnology |
| Zdroj: | Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering, Vol 17, Iss 6, Pp 8084-8104 (2020) |
| ISSN: | 1551-0018 |
| Popis: | Healthcare associated transmission of viral infections is a major problem that has significant economic costs and can lead to loss of life. Infections with the highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 virus have been shown to have a high prevalence in hospitals around the world. The spread of this virus might be impacted by the density of patients inside hospital bays. To investigate this aspect, in this study we consider a mathematical modelling and computational approach to describe the spread of SARS-CoV-2 among hospitalised patients. We focus on 4-bed bays and 6-bed bays, which are commonly used to accommodate various non-Covid-19 patients in many hospitals across UK. We use this mathematical model to investigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infections among patients in non-Covid bays, in the context of various scenarios: changes in the number of contacts with infected patients and staff, having symptomatic vs. asymptomatic patients, removing infected individuals from these hospital bays once they are known to be infected, and the role of periodic testing of hospitalised patients. Our results show that 4-bed bays reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 compared to 6-bed bays. Moreover, we show that the position of a new (not infected) patient in specific beds in a 6-bed bay might also slow the spread of the disease. Finally, we propose that regular SARS-CoV-2 testing of hospitalised patients would allow appropriate placement of infected patients in specific (Covid-only) hospital bays. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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