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Introduction: To analyze the virus spread among Sassari Hospital staff in the first Covid-19 wave and the impact of the Swab Team, a multidisciplinary task force entitled of nasopharyngeal swab collection and testing. Methodology: Nasopharyngeal swabs from HCWs between March 6 and May 28 2020 are evaluated. Results: 4919 SARS-CoV-2 tests were performed on 3521 operators. Nurses and doctors are the categories at highest risk. After the Swab Team institution, the average number of swabs raised from 47/day to 86/day (p = 0.007). Positive samples decreased from 18.6% to 1.7% (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: The Swab Team is effective in increasing the cases tested and in reducing the reporting time. Procedure standardization reduces the risk for all the subjects involved (no transmission among swab team members, nor during the sample collection).

Vaccinating healthcare workers (HCWs) is the most effective intervention for preventing nosocomial influenza infection. However, influenza vaccination coverage (VC%) among HCWs remains low. The aim of the study was to analyse the trend of VC% among healthcare workers in an Italian hospital through a three-year vaccination project covering three influenza seasons (2018–2019, 2019–2020, and 2020–2021). A gap analysis was performed at the case base (2018–2019), on-site vaccination was trialled in the 2019–2020 season, and an integrated vaccination offer (on-site vaccination and the classic offer at a vaccination clinic) was implemented for the 2020–2021 season. For each unit of vaccinated HCWs, the following variables were recorded: main demographic details, area of affiliation (medical/surgical/services), and professional category. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the relationship between outcome (undergoing vaccination in 2020–2021) and other variables related to the healthcare workers’ characteristics. In the three seasons, VC% values of 13.2%. 27.7%, and 58.9% were recorded, respectively (p &lt, 0.005). The highest VC% was recorded among physicians (94.93%), in the medical area (63.27%), and males (62.59%) and in general among the youngest HCWs. Comparison of the coverage values recorded in the three seasons showed that in the last season considered (2020–2021) about 80% of health workers preferred to be vaccinated in the workplace instead of using the standard vaccination delivery method (invitation to attend the vaccination clinic). Our study suggests that the integrated vaccination offer may lead to an increase in VC% among HCWs compared to the classical offer modalities.

BACKGROUND: since the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak a growing number of symptoms and deficits associated with the new pathology have emerged, among them cochlear damage in otherwise asymptomatic COVID-19 patients has been described. OBJECTIVE: to investigate general and audiovestibular symptoms and sequelae in healed patients, and to seek for any sign of residual or permanent hearing or vestibular loss. METHODS: we reviewed the data coming from 48 Covid-19 patients whose nasopharyngeal swabs have turned negative, all employed at our facility, that opted in for a free screening of audiovestibular symptoms offered by our hospital after the aforementioned report was published. The screening included a tonal pure tone audiometry, a vHIT and SHIMP test, as well as a survey including known symptoms and audiovestibular symptoms. RESULTS: general symptoms as reported by our patients largely reflect what reported by others in the literature. 4 (8.3%) patients reported hearing loss, 2 (4.2%) tinnitus, 4 dizziness (8.3%), 1 spinning vertigo (2%), 1 dynamic imbalance (2%), 3 static imbalance (6.3%). Most audiovestibular symptoms have regressed. Thresholds at pure tone audiometry and vHIT gain were within normality range in all post-Covid-19 patients. CONCLUSIONS: even if some patients suffer from audiovestibular symptoms, these are mostly transitory and there is no clear evidence of clinically relevant persistent cochlear or vestibular damage after recovery.

Purpose Inflammation and immunity play a pivotal but yet unclear role in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic disorder characterized by progressive damage of lung parenchyma and severe loss of lung function despite optimal treatment. However, the pathophysiological and predictive role of combined blood cell count indexes of inflammation in IPF is uncertain. Methods Seventy-three patients with IPF and 62 healthy subjects matched for age, gender and smoking status were included in this cross-sectional study. Results We found significant differences in neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (dNLR), monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (MLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), systemic inflammation response index (SIRI) and aggregate index of systemic inflammation (AISI) between IPF patients and healthy controls. In logistic regression, all combined blood inflammation indexes, barring PLR, were independently associated with the presence of IPF after adjusting for age, gender, body mass index and smoking status. Furthermore, significant associations between FVC% and NLR, LMR, SIRI and AISI, and between DLCO% and NLR, dNLR, LMR, SIRI and AISI, were observed. Conclusions In conclusion, our data indicate significant alterations of combined blood cell count indexes of inflammation in IPF.

Background Objective data on chemosensitive disorders during COVID‐19 are lacking in the Literature. Methods Multicenter cohort study that involved four Italian hospitals. Three hundred and forty‐five COVID‐19 patients underwent objective chemosensitive evaluation. Results Chemosensitive disorders self‐reported by 256 patients (74.2%) but the 30.1% of the 89 patients who did not report dysfunctions proved objectively hyposmic. Twenty‐five percentage of patients were seen serious long‐lasting complaints. All asymptomatic patients had a slight lowering of the olfactory threshold. No significant correlations were found between the presence and severity of chemosensitive disorders and the severity of the clinical course. On the contrary, there is a significant correlation between the duration of the olfactory and gustatory symptoms and the development of severe COVID‐19. Conclusions Patients under‐report the frequency of chemosensitive disorders. Contrary to recent reports, such objective testing refutes the proposal that the presence of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction may predict a milder course, but instead suggests that those with more severe disease neglect such symptoms in the setting of severe respiratory disease.

The aim of this work is to evaluate the attitudes, behaviours, and knowledge of health workers employed at an Italian University Hospital on the topic of vaccinations and in regard to flu vaccination. To this end, the study provided for the articulation of a computerised questionnaire on the digital platform EUSurvey which was administered online via e-mail to a sample of 457 health workers, in the period between November 2018 and March 2019. The data were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. In particular, a logistic regression analysis was carried out in order to evaluate the relationship between the variables collected and the dichotomous outcome (vaccinated/unvaccinated subjects in the 2018&ndash, 2019 season). The results, in line with what has been reported by the literature, highlighted that vaccine hesitancy is prevalent also among health workers. Furthermore, according to our study, only 30.6% of the health care workers had the flu vaccination. The survey points out the need to plan educational and informative interventions aimed at changing the attitudes, behaviours, and knowledge of health workers in the field of flu vaccination, for the purpose of protecting the health of healthcare personnel and their patients.

Introduction Wellbeing and health status of healthcare workerscan be strictly related to the quality of careprovided to the patients. Aim of our study was to compare burnout level, cardiovascular risk (CV) and renal function, in health care workers and administrative clerks of an Italian hospital, to properly address preventive and health promoting intervention. Methods A sample of 262 health care workers (female = 184, male = 78) was randomly selected among the hospital personnel (about 19% of the total workforce), divided in four job categories: physicians, nurses, nurse aides, and administrative clerks. All subjects completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaire. CV risk was measured by “Framingham ATP III point score” and glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was estimated by “eGFR CKD EPI equation”. Results Mean age of the overall study sample was 50,4 (sd 6,22). Burnout level was high for all job tasks investigated, particularly for emotional exhaustion (40.0% nurses aides, 30.2% administrative clerks) and cynicism (33.3% nurses aides, 26.6% administrative clerks). A medium-high 10-years CV risk was found in 19% of the cohort. The renal function showed early signs of impairment in 5.4% of subjects. The subgroup with moderate-high level of cynicism shows a lower eGFR (103,74; IF 95% 102,23–105,25; p = 0.016). Also moderate-high levels of emotional exhaustion resulted associated with lower eGFR (103,94; IF 95% 102,18–105,69; p = 0.09). No significant differences of eGFR were found between administrative clerks and other job categories. Discussion This explorative analysis shows a high prevalence of burnout among all health care workers, with a relevant proportion showing a moderate-high risk of CV and chronic renal disease. Greater efforts are warranted to promote healthy lifestyles resulting in wellbeing of ageing workers’ and better quality of health care. This study was conducted with the financial support of the Italian Ministry of Health, CCM Program 2013.

Our study examined the respiratory function of 92 firemen whose main activity is fire fighting in forests and open country. Such fire fighting activities are to be considered a risk to the respiratory tract, taking into account studies already in the literature that have evaluated the nature and quantity of inhalable toxins present in activities of this kind. The control group was composed of 51 Carabinieri (policemen), who were asked to fill in a questionnaire about their work activities. Forced expiratory volume and flow, total lung capacity, respiratory volume, and the permeability of the alveolar-capillary barrier were measured. Firemen and Carabinieri (policemen) showed FVC rates higher than the European Community for Coal and Steel standards. The firemen showed a significant reduction in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1)[3.90 (0.50) vs. 4.04 (0.44); p < 0.05] and forced expiratory flow at 75% of forced vital capacity (FVC) (FEF75) [8.37 (4.11) vs. 8.38 (1.67) p < 0.05] and more markedly in the FEV 1/FVC relationship [80.07 (5.89) vs. 83.89 (1.67) p < 0.001] and in FEF50 [4.73 (1.34) vs. 5.54 (1.44) p < 0.01] and FEF25[1.58 (.47) vs. 1.99 (.69) p < 0.001]. There were no marked differences in air-blood exchanges. No correlation was found between respiratory function data and years of service or the number of fires extinguished during work experience.