The Ministry of Health has entered COVID-19, an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, on the list of occupational diseases.
This is a response to the appeal of the Presidium of the Supreme Medical Council on March 30, this year, which was addressed to the Prime Minister regarding the recognition of an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a doctor or dentist as an occupational disease.
See also: The most common occupational diseases in Poland
In order to remove all doubts, the Presidium of the NRL even suggested that the infectious disease COVID-19 should be entered separately in the list of occupational diseases established in the regulation of the Council of Ministers of June 30, 2009 on occupational diseases. In the above-mentioned of the appeal, it was also proposed that in the case of when a doctor or dentist falls ill with an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it is highly probable that the disease was caused by factors harmful to health in the work environment or in connection with the way of work, which is a condition for recognizing the infection as an occupational disease.
Statistically, the risk of coronavirus infection while performing professional duties is much higher in the professional group of doctors and dentists than in other professional groups. This risk increases even more when there is a lack of personal protective equipment and when the epidemic threat is new – the SARS-CoV-2 virus has not yet been sufficiently thoroughly researched in terms of science, including effective protection against it.
Following the ministry’s reply, it should be concluded that in the case of a doctor or dentist infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus, there are grounds for issuing a decision on the occupational disease.
What other occupational diseases are doctors at risk?
Specialists from the Institute of Occupational Medicine prof. J. Nofer in 2018 published an analysis of occupational diseases among health care and social welfare workers (data from 2009–2016). In the analyzed period, the most frequently diagnosed occupational diseases were indicated by:
- infectious and parasitic diseases (64,8%),
- diseases of the peripheral nervous system (9,6%),
- skin diseases (8,9%),
- diseases of the musculoskeletal system (8,3%),
- diseases of the voice organ (3,2%).
Other health problems of health care workers that appear in the Central Register of Occupational Diseases, including allergic rhinitis, asthma, diseases caused by ionizing radiation, diseases of the visual system, cancer, acute generalized allergic reactions, poisoning, vibration syndrome – they were combined 5,1 percent all cases recorded by the Institute of Occupational Medicine.
Viral hepatitis (hepatitis) turned out to be the dominant infectious disease, and even the dominant occupational disease among health care and social workers. In terms of incidence, tuberculosis took second place among infectious diseases, which accounted for 25,3% of all occupational diseases in health care.
As we read in the study:
Apart from viral hepatitis and tuberculosis, there were 16 cases of scabies, 6 – sepsis and, occasionally, AH1N1 influenza, staphylococcal infections, mycobacteriosis, pneumonia, whooping cough, chicken pox, viral meningitis, bacterial infection of the gastrointestinal tract, blue oil infection, facial skin infection and human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. These diseases accounted for a total of 5 percent. infectious and parasitic diseases.
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