Are doctors at any higher risk of catching infectious diseases compared to the gen. pop? (pandemics, etc)

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neosp0rin

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Weird question, but I'm curious. Are doctors at any higher risk of catching or dying of infectious diseases or a superbug than the general population?

And if so, what specialities are more at risk for this? I'd naturally assume it's anyone working within a hospital, right?

I'm paranoid about a massive pandemic in my lifetime and assume doctors would be on the frontlines of exposure, obviously. I'd just want to take steps to minimize my exposure in the future.

One thing that made me start thinking about this is the recent nuclear explosion in Russia. There's not a whole lot of information about it because the gov't suppressed exactly what happened, but scientists involved in the explosion were sent to a hospital and allegedly, several doctors were exposed to radiation without being properly informed of what was happening to their patients. I've read stories of these doctors since being quarantined and their current whereabouts are unknown.

This isn't necessarily disease-related, but it just got me thinking of the overall safety of doctors in these frontline situations.

Thoughts?
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You’re around sick people so there is a higher risk of getting sick. It’s just the nature of the business.

review of increased infection risk in healthcare workers:

Infectious diseases in healthcare workers – an analysis of the standardised data set of a German compensation board - PMC

Healthcare workers (HCW) are exposed to infectious agents. Disease surveillance is therefore needed in order to foster prevention. The data of the compensation board that covers HCWs of non-governmental healthcare providers in Germany was analysed ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
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Yes.

But we still have to go to work.

I don’t worry about massive pandemics-just like I don’t worry about meteors. Sure, a pandemic flu is certainly very possible again, but what good does it do to worry about it? I have a toddler-he’ll expose me to more things than my patients ever will.
 
Moving to topics in healthcare.

Clearly, yes, and especially for hospital based specialties. Keep in mind that pandemics have happened multiple times each century, so yeah the odds are pretty good. But it’s part of living on planet earth.
 
Yes.
My favorite factoid is that Neurosurgeons are at higher risk of getting CJD.
 
FutureInternist said:
That should be filed under “No poop, Sherlock” 🙂
Click to expand...
considering how rare CJD is, and considering they arent actually eating brains in procedures, its still an unusual factoid.

It is like as if obgyns had higher rates of STIs compared to the national rate. even tho they arent having sex with their patients.
 
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