BMJ 1994;308:1161 (30 April)

Letters

Hepatitis B and admission to medical school

New policy unclear and unreasonable

EDITOR,--We agree with A M L Lever's editorial on hepatitis B and medical students.1 While some of our views on this subject have already been described,2 we should like to make several additional points.

We strongly support existing practices whereby medical students are screened for hepatitis B virus and vaccinated early after admission to medical school. The medical school and each student share responsibility to complete the vaccination protocol. After this students should be investigated for seroconversion, told of their antibody titre, and advised about boosters. Students who fail to sero-convert but are shown to be uninfected should repeat the vaccination. Students who are found to be infectious carriers of hepatitis B virus (e antigen positive) should be counselled and receive interferon treatment. While they are infectious their courses and preregistration house officer year should be modified to exclude "exposure prone procedures," as described by . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Hepatitis B and medical student admission
A M L Lever
BMJ 1994 308: 870-871. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Shaw, D (2008). Dentistry and the ethics of infection. J. Med. Ethics 34: 184-187 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Lever, A M L, Erridge, P L (1994). Hepatitis B and medical student admission. BMJ 308: 1710-1711 [Full text]  
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