Title:Occupational Exposure and Respiratory Tract Infections –At Risk Workers in the International Context
Volume: 12
Issue: 1
Author(s): Tor B. Aasen
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Occupational exposure, respiratory infection, tuberculosis, influenza, coronaviruses, infectious disease.
Abstract: Infectious diseases transmitted at work are frequent globally. Lung infections due to
exposure at work are mainly affecting two broad groups, health care workers (HCW) and people
exposed occasionally to sick animals. The main challenge globally during the last decades has been
tuberculosis (TB), different influenza strains and coronaviruses. TB is still a global threat infecting
almost 9 mill people world-wide and causing 1, 4 mill deaths (2011). Influenza is common during
winters in smaller epidemics, but has also caused serious pandemics (1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009). TB
in miners is a major health problem in South-Africa. Avian influenza is caused by the influenza A strain
in birds. Humans may acquire avian influenza by inhalations of droplets or by contact from infected
material. Different avian strains have been shown to infect humans (H5N1, H7N7 and H9N2 strains).
Swine influenza H1N1 (S-OIV) were reported from Mexico in 2009 with a further rapid spread to other
countries and causing a pandemic. The syndrome of SARS caused by a coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was first described in
Guangdong, China in 2002. The infection spread rapidly and 29 countries were affected in the first epidemic in 2002-3. In
2012 a novel coronavirus (MERS-CoV) related to SARS was described in a Saudi Arabian patient who died of pneumonia
and multi-organ failure (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome - MERS). Other occupational respiratory infections are also
encountered, among them legionella, psittacosis and Q-fever. Increased mortality of pneumonia in welders is a special
problem, probably due to reduced resistance to infection because of welding fumes.
Knowledge of disease transmission mechanisms is necessary for managing epidemics.
