COVID-19 response in a long-term care facility for people with epilepsy.
SARS‐CoV‐2
asymptomatic rate
fatality ratio
seizures
Journal
Epilepsia open
ISSN: 2470-9239
Titre abrégé: Epilepsia Open
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101692036
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
09 Apr 2024
09 Apr 2024
Historique:
revised:
09
03
2024
received:
10
02
2024
accepted:
01
04
2024
medline:
9
4
2024
pubmed:
9
4
2024
entrez:
9
4
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
To assess asymptomatic rates and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection in people with epilepsy and their healthcare workers in a long-term care facility which had implemented weekly surveillance testing between April 2020 and June 2022. Questionnaires focused on objective and subjective COVID-19 symptoms for people with epilepsy residing in and their healthcare workers at the Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy in June 2022. Demographic information, comorbidities, and seizure frequency were gathered from medical records. We also collected responses on objective and subjective COVID-19 symptoms from healthcare workers who participated in a prospective study assessing the reaction to COVID-19 vaccinations (SAFER). Fifty-five out of 89 (62%) residents tested positive at least once on weekly PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 during the period of interest; 20 of those (37%) were asymptomatic. In comparison, of those 63 healthcare workers who tested positive at least once on weekly testing during the same period, only four (6%) were asymptomatic. Of the 159 healthcare workers who also participated in the SAFER study, 41 tested positive at least once, and seven (17%) were completely asymptomatic during infection with SARS-CoV-2. People with epilepsy living in a long-term care facility were more likely to present with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections than healthcare workers at the same facility. Despite possible bias in the reporting of subjective symptoms due to management-by-proxy, there is no evidence that vulnerable people living in an epilepsy long-term care facility showed reduced resilience towards infections. People with epilepsy living in care home facilities had a surprisingly high degree of asymptomatic infections with SARS-CoV-2. Very few residents had severe or fatal outcomes. This is in stark contrast to the widely reported bad outcomes for people without epilepsy in other care homes. People with epilepsy reported significantly less symptoms than their healthcare workers. No changes in seizure frequency during or after infection were observed.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Informations de copyright
© 2024 The Authors. Epilepsia Open published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International League Against Epilepsy.
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