ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought countries’ health services into sharp focus. It was drawn to our group’s attention that healthcare workers (HCWs) had a lower mortality rate against higher COVID-19 incidence compared to the general population in Turkey. Since risk of exposure to tuberculosis bacillus among healthcare workers are higher than the population, we aimed to investigate if there is a relationship between BCG and Mycobacterium tuberculosis exposure history with COVID-19 severity in infected HCWs. This study was conducted with 465 infected HCWs from thirty-three hospitals to assess the relationship between COVID-19 severity (according to their hospitalization status and the presence of radiological pneumonia) and BCG and Mycobacterium tuberculosis exposure history. HCWs who required hospital admission had significantly higher rates of chronic diseases, radiological pneumonia, and longer working hours in the clinics. Higher rates of history of contact and care to tuberculosis patients, history of tuberculosis, and BCG vaccine were observed in hospitalized HCWs. HCWs who had radiological pneumonia had a significantly increased ratio of history of care to tuberculosis patients and a higher family history of tuberculosis. The findings from our study suggest that the lower mortality rate despite the more severe disease course seen in infected HCWs might be due to frequent exposure to tuberculosis bacillus and the mortality-reducing effects of the BCG vaccine.

摘要

COVID-19 大流行使各国的卫生服务成为人们关注的焦点。我们小组注意到，与土耳其的普通人群相比，医护人员 (HCW) 的死亡率较低，而 COVID-19 发病率较高。由于医护人员接触结核杆菌的风险高于人群，我们旨在调查卡介苗和结核分枝杆菌接触史与感染的医护人员的 COVID-19 严重程度之间是否存在关系。本研究对来自 33 家医院的 465 名受感染的医护人员进行，以评估 COVID-19 严重程度（根据他们的住院情况和放射性肺炎的存在）与卡介苗和结核分枝杆菌之间的关系接触史。需要住院的医护人员患慢性病、放射性肺炎的发生率明显更高，而且在诊所的工作时间更长。在住院的医护人员中观察到更高的结核病患者接触史和护理史、结核病史和卡介苗接种率。患有放射性肺炎的医护人员与结核病患者的护理史比例显着增加，结核病家族史更高。我们的研究结果表明，尽管感染的医护人员的病程更严重，但死亡率较低可能是由于频繁接触结核杆菌和卡介苗疫苗的降低死亡率的作用。