Premium
Management of healthcare workers after occupational exposure to hepatitis C virus
Author(s) -
Charles Patrick GP,
Grayson M Lindsay,
Angus Peter W,
Sasadeusz Joseph J
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05475.x
Subject(s) - needlestick injury , medicine , health care , context (archaeology) , transmission (telecommunications) , hepatitis c virus , hepatitis c , personal protective equipment , healthcare worker , occupational exposure , infection control , occupational safety and health , emergency medicine , environmental health , intensive care medicine , family medicine , virology , virus , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , pathology , covid-19 , economic growth , engineering , paleontology , electrical engineering , economics , biology
The increasing rate of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the community means that there is increased risk of occupational exposure for healthcare workers. In metropolitan hospitals in Victoria, we found that 80–150 healthcare workers have occupational exposures from HCV‐infected patients annually. As there is a 1.8%–3% risk of transmission of HCV from a needlestick injury, two to five healthcare workers are likely to acquire HCV each year in Victoria. These needlestick injuries pose a personal, legal and professional risk to healthcare workers and their patients. Recent information shows that early antiviral treatment of acute HCV infection has high cure rates. Current local and international protocols for management of healthcare workers exposed to HCV do not address these issues. We propose a management protocol after needlestick injury that is stratified according to the likelihood of HCV acquisition and potential risk of staff‐to‐patient transmission, and that is consistent with the current legal and clinical context of HCV infection in Australia.