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Transmission of hepatitis C from a midwife to a patient through non‐exposure prone procedures
Author(s) -
Muir David,
Chow Yimmy,
Tedder Richard,
Smith Donald,
Harrison John,
Holmes Alison
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.23826
Subject(s) - venipuncture , medicine , transmission (telecommunications) , virology , serology , health care , hepatitis c virus , healthcare worker , hepatitis c , emergency medicine , obstetrics , virus , immunology , surgery , antibody , electrical engineering , economics , engineering , economic growth
A woman developed acute hepatitis C (HCV) infection 2 months after delivering her baby at a London Hospital. The other patients who had been on the unit at the same time all had negative HCV serology antenatally. Testing of the healthcare workers who had been involved in this patient's care revealed that one of the midwives who only worked on the postnatal unit was chronically infected with the same viral genotype. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis revealed close identity between the viruses from the two individuals. Although, the midwife had only performed non‐exposure prone procedures including venepuncture and cannulation, our findings indicate that transmission of the virus had occurred from the healthcare worker to the patient. The potential implications of this case within the setting of national policy on blood borne viruses and healthcare workers are discussed. J. Med. Virol. 86:235–240, 2014 . © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.