TY - JOUR AU - Bernard, Helen AU - Fischer, Richela AU - Mikolajczyk, Rafael T. AU - Kretzschmar, Mirjam AU - Wildner, Manfred T1 - Nurses’ Contacts and Potential for Infectious Disease Transmission T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2009 VL - 15 IS - 9 SP - 1438 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Nurses’ contacts with potentially infectious persons probably place them at higher risk than the general population for infectious diseases. During an influenza pandemic, illness among nurses might result in staff shortage. We aimed to show the value of individual data from the healthcare sector for mathematical modeling of infectious disease transmission. Using a paper diary approach, we compared nurses’ daily contacts (2-way conversation with >2 words or skin-to-skin contact) with those of matched controls from a representative population survey. Nurses (n = 129) reported a median of 40 contacts (85% work related), and controls (n = 129) reported 12 contacts (33% work related). For nurses, 51% of work-related contacts were with patients (74% involving skin-to-skin contact, and 63% lasted <15 minutes); 40% were with staff members (29% and 36%, respectively). Our data, used with simulation models, can help predict staff availability and provide information for pandemic preparedness planning. KW - Influenza KW - communicable diseases KW - disease outbreaks KW - computer simulation KW - health care sector KW - nurses KW - social contacts KW - viruses KW - expedited KW - research KW - Germany DO - 10.3201/eid1509.081475 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/9/08-1475_article ER - End of Reference