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Hepatitis C: A Danger to Healthcare Workers
Author(s) -
Dillman Corey M.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
nursing forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.618
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1744-6198
pISSN - 0029-6473
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-6198.1999.tb00983.x
Subject(s) - hepatitis c , medicine , health care , transmission (telecommunications) , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , hepatitis b , universal precautions , disease , hepatitis , family medicine , environmental health , virology , political science , law , electrical engineering , engineering
There is no vaccine to prevent hepatitis C. The disease has infected more than 4 million people in the United States. Up to 10,000 people in the United States will die annually from the disease and that number will triple by the year 2010 (more than AIDS) (National Institutes of Health, 1997). The primary transmission route is through blood. The risk to healthcare workers of becoming infected after exposure from a needle stick is between 1.2% to 10%, whereas for HIV it is 0.3%. Healthcare workers must shift their self‐protection focus from HIV to hepatitis C. Annual education on Universal Precautions must emphasize the risk of hepatitis C. Further, all healthcare workers should be baseline‐tested immediately following exposure.