Factors of biological nature in work of mobile teams of emergency medical care station on the eve of pandemics of new coronavirus infection (COVID-19)

Aim. Determination of the actual spectrum of pathogenic microorganisms to which medical workers of mobile teams of emergency medical care (EMC) are exposed, and scientific justification of the class of the working conditions of this professional group in terms of the biological factor.

Materials and Methods. Data of the electronic journal of the automated «Ambulance Service» control system for infectious patients, and records of the register for infectious diseases among workers of the municipal emergency medical care station of Ryazan (300 medical assistants, 64 doctors) for 2016-2019 were used.

Results. The average amount of calls to patients with infectious pathology in 2016-2019 made 2178.5±221.3 per year. Most emergency calls were for intestinal infections, common cases were varicella, erysipelas, viral hepatites, tuberculosis infection, herpes zoster. The main load in servicing these calls fell on linear (from 63.7 to 77.4%) and pediatric (from 24.8 to 35.1%) teams; calls of resuscitation teams to patients of such profile were sporadic. The level of infectious morbidity of doctors made 0.78 cases per 100 doctors which is 1.2-fold higher than the level of medical assistants (t=3.79; р=0.0003).

Conclusion. The confirmed cases of diseases of the studied group of workers resulting from professional contacts with sources of infections of Group III pathogenicity permits to refer the working conditions of medical workers of mobile teams of emergency medical care stations to hazard Class II. However, a high probability for professional contact with high pathogenicity strains of group A influenza, HIV-1 and HIV-2, hepatitis C, D, E viruses belonging to Group II pathogenicity, and existence of the evident contacts with SARS-CoV-2, permit to raise the class of the working conditions to hazard Class III.