Occupational Exposure of Health Care Personnel to Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C: Prevention and Surveillance Strategies

Details

• Personal Author:
  Gomaa, Ahmed ; Laramie AK ; MacCannell T ; Perz JF
• Description:
  Health care personnel represent a vital workforce that aims to preserve and improve the health of others. Among the 35 million health care personnel employed worldwide, percutaneous injuries have been estimated to result in approximately 16,000 hepatitis C and 66,000 hepatitis B virus infections annually. Within the United States, an estimated 14.4 million workers are employed in the health care industry, with more than 5.7 million employed in hospitals alone. The landscape of health care delivery is changing, and increases in staff workload and patient complexity may have an impact on the likelihood of occupational injuries. Ensuring health care personnel safety is a challenge that must be met with multifaceted approaches to prevention. In the context of health care-associated occupational bloodborne pathogen risks, the US Public Health Service (USPHS) defines health care personnel as persons (eg, employees, students, contractors, attending clinicians, public safety workers, or volunteers) whose activities involve contact with patients or with blood or other body fluids from patients in a health care, laboratory, or public safety setting. Injuries involving needles and other sharps in health care are associated with the transmission of many pathogens, but the pathogens of most immediate concern during patient care activities are hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and HIV. These infections are associated with chronic disease and significant morbidity and mortality. The majority of exposures to bloodborne pathogens in health care personnel are preventable. Protection from bloodborne pathogen exposures is fundamental to health care personnel and patient safety. The prevention of sharps injuries is an important aspect of eliminating the transmission of bloodborne pathogens to health care personnel, and contributes to establishing safe workplace environments. This review describes the epidemiology of HBV and HCV in health care personnel, with a focus on current prevention and postexposure management strategies and provides examples of surveillance programs used to monitor and manage these exposures. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Blood Blood-Borne Pathogens Communicable Diseases Epidemiology Health Personnel Hematologic Diseases Needlestick Injuries Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Hepatitis B Bloodborne Pathogens Disease Prevention Health Care Workers Hepatitis B Hepatitis C Infectious Diseases Needlestick Injuries Occupational Exposure Sharps Surveillance

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• ISSN:
  2046-2484
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; Massachusetts ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  23-36
• Volume:
  14
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20061314
• Citation:
  Clin Liver Dis 2010 Feb; 14(1):23-36
• Contact Point Address:
  Taranisia MacCannell MSc, PhD, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS-A31, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA
• Email:
  tmaccannell@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Performing Organization:
  Massachusetts State Department of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Clinical Liver Disease
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:45e0869ebab6384afb4e2ec9ebd9c9e5acdd1b33b1a9d2ffb7bb58c2b7dd08839fd673cb99d5254a58a4367fcfc13c567ed2d01bc7fc58ccb33f0ccf74cd6719
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224877/cdc_224877_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 123.48 KB ]