Monitoring major illness in health care workers and hospital staff.

During the past 3 decades, our understanding of both the biology and epidemiology of infectious diseases has vastly improved because of methodological and technological developments. However, researchers have yet to take full advantage of the tools available to them, particularly in health care settings. Most studies of nosocomial influenza and other infections focus primarily on patients, but health care workers (HCWs) [1–3] and hospitals [4] are likely to be central to disease transmission, prevention, and risk. Unfortunately, most studies of disease transmission within hospitals treat HCWs as ‘‘fixtures’’ rather than dynamic members of a disease transmission network, and there has been inadequate investment in the study of disease transmission among HCWs. This is a missed opportunity to develop a critical understanding of disease epidemiology, thereby increasing patient safety and supporting and protecting HCWs as one of society’s most important and valued resources. The study in this month’s Clinical Infectious Diseases by Seto and colleagues highlights the importance of detailed surveillance and research of infectious diseases among HCWs in understanding the roles of HCWs and patients in nosocomial transmission. It demonstrates the value of an organizational ability to adopt and integrate innovative methods into hospital procedures, and also some missed opportunities to gain a more complete understand the observations.