Hepatitis B and Health Care Workers

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how essential it is for health care workers to be screened for Hepatitis B, especially those providing primary care. It explains that all workers in health care, such as physicians, nurses, emergency medical personnel, dental professionals and students, medical and nursing students, laboratory technicians, hospital volunteers, and even administrative staff are at risk due to their regular contact with patients and their infected material. It discusses how these diseases are preventable with suitable vaccines. It is thus very important to maintain immunity for the control of infection and the immunity of these workers of health care.

From the Paper:

"Hepatitis B exists all over the world, and as many as 2 billion persons have been infected all over the world. The estimate of chronic carriers of Hepatitis B is 350 million and that is 5 percent of the population of the world. (Mac Arthur, 2001, p. 38) Among Americans, about 5 percent of the population are estimated to be carrying evidence in their antibodies that they have been infected earlier by hepatitis B virus, and of them 0.1 to 0.5 percent are chronic carriers. The recent years have shown a case of slow decline of these carriers among the general population. The sequence of infection with hepatitis B is well known. Out of the population who has been infected, a proportion between 5 and 10 percent develop chronic hepatitis with persistent infectivity. Among the chronically infected individuals, 15 to 25 percent finally end up with cirrhosis or hepatocellular cancer. (Swinker, 1997, p. 2294) The battle against hepatitis B is being led by the healthcare professionals. (Immunization of Health-Care Workers: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, MMWR, 1997, p. 5) At the same time, this is the major hazard for infection for the health care personnel. (Swinker, 1997, p. 2296) The risks arise from acquiring infection from accidental blood exposure. Once they are infected themselves, they also may cause infection to the patients. (Immunization of Health-Care Workers: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, MMWR, 1997, p. 5) Among the American health care workers, as many as 12,000 get hepatitis B due to occupational injuries like a needle stick or splash of mucous membrane. From the lot, about 200 develop fulminant hepatitis and that may even result in their death. (Hepatitis B Seronegative Commonalties in Health Care Workers. Running Head: Seronegative Commonalties)"

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