Immunity to hepatitis B among health care workers performing exposure prone procedures
BMJ 1994; 309 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.309.6947.94a (Published 09 July 1994) Cite this as: BMJ 1994;309:94
- C J M Poole, consultant occupational physiciana,
- S Miller, director of occupational healtha,
- G Fillingham, senior occupational health nurse Occupational Health Service, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 0HSa
- Occupational Health Service, Dudley Health Authority, Central Clinic, Dudley DY2 7BX
- Correspondence to: Dr Poole.
- Accepted 28 March 1994
All health care staff who have contact with blood or bloodstained body fluids should be vaccinated against hepatitis B.1 More recent recommendations are that all surgeons should be immunised against hepatitis B by mid-1994 and all staff involved in exposure prone procedures by mid-1995,2 exposure prone procedures being those in which injury to the employee could result in exposure of a patient's open tissues to the employee's blood. We examined the immunity of staff of two health authorities and estimated the risk of a health care worker who performs exposure prone procedures being an infectious carrier of hepatitis B.
Subjects, methods, and results
Dudley Health Authority and Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte's Special Health Authority separately introduced policies before and in keeping with the government's guidelines2 in 1993 and 1991 respectively. All employees performing exposure prone procedures were asked to provide evidence of immunity to hepatitis …