The Risk of Nosocomial Transmission of Rift Valley Fever.

In 2000, we investigated the Rift Valley fever (RVF) outbreak on the Arabian Peninsula-the first outside Africa-and the risk of nosocomial transmission. In a cross-sectional design, during the peak of the epidemic at its epicenter, we found four (0.6%) of 703 healthcare workers (HCWs) IgM seropositi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Main Authors: Nasser A Al-Hamdan, Anil A Panackal, Tami H Al Bassam, Abdullah Alrabea, Mohammed Al Hazmi, Yagoub Al Mazroa, Mohammed Al Jefri, Ali S Khan, Thomas G Ksiazek
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004314
https://doaj.org/article/ef57545ba8a14f61b1de4f90c8a33bfe
Description
Summary:In 2000, we investigated the Rift Valley fever (RVF) outbreak on the Arabian Peninsula-the first outside Africa-and the risk of nosocomial transmission. In a cross-sectional design, during the peak of the epidemic at its epicenter, we found four (0.6%) of 703 healthcare workers (HCWs) IgM seropositive but all with only community-associated exposures. Standard precautions are sufficient for HCWs exposed to known RVF patients, in contrast to other viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHF) such as Ebola virus disease (EVD) in which the route of transmission differs. Suspected VHF in which the etiology is uncertain should be initially managed with the most cautious infection control measures.