COVID-19 as an occupational disease – ongoing infection or reinfection?

Overview

The aim of this article is to provide practical information about the disease COVID-19 with a focus on its criteria necessary for recognition as an occupational disease, on the development of the number of cases with this diagnosis recognized as an occupational disease in the Czech Republic between the years 2020 and 2022 and on the definition of reinfection with a summary of the conditions for confirming its diagnosis when assessing recurrent disease. The article briefly recapitulates the course of the coronavirus pandemic in the Czech Republic, including the development of the situation, the number of newly confirmed cases of infection and cases of reinfection up to the present. Furthermore, the article describes a case study of a patient who was treated for recurrent disease of COVID-19 as a matter of professionalism. Although the clinical and hygienic conditions for recognition of both acquired diseases were met, the criteria for recognition of the second disease as reinfection were not met and it was therefore not possible to recognize the disease as two separate occupational diseases.

Keywords:

occupational disease – reinfection – disease COVID-19 – development of the pandemic