查看文章

To the Editor—We very much appreciated the letter by Zhou et al Reference Zhou, Huang, Xiao, Huang and Fan 1 regarding the protection of Chinese healthcare workers (HCWs) while fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors recognized that the lack of awareness and training, the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), and the lack of point-of-care diagnostic tests for were the most important sources of viral spread. In Italy, more infections among HCWs have been recorded than in China. As of April 5, 2020, 12,252 HCWs in Italy had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, comprising 10% of Italy’s COVID-19 cases 2; furthermore, 80 medical doctors and 25 nurses had died. Notably, official figures probably underestimate the real impact of COVID-19 on Italian HCWs because many have not been tested and a large majority of coronavirus infections do not result in symptoms or remain paucisymptomatic …