Skip Navigation


Occupational Medicine Advance Access originally published online on March 26, 2007
Occupational Medicine 2007 57(8):596-598; doi:10.1093/occmed/kqm010
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
57/8/596    most recent
kqm010v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (2)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Williams, S.
Right arrow Articles by Ramsay, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Williams, S.
Right arrow Articles by Ramsay, M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Short Reports

Compliance with follow-up after occupational exposure to hepatitis C

Sian Williams1, Valerie Libotte1 and Mary Ramsay2

1 Occupational Health and Safety Unit, Royal Free Hospital, London NW3 2QG, UK
2 Communicable Diseases Surveillance Centre, Health Protection Agency, 61 Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5EQ, UK

Background Accidental percutaneous exposure to blood containing hepatitis C virus (HCV) is reported by health care workers more frequently than exposure to human immunodeficiency and hepatitis B virus. The transmission rate following such an exposure is ~1.9%. Little is known about the attendance rate of such staff for follow-up testing following exposure to HCV.

Aim To determine whether our follow-up programme for staff exposed to hepatitis C would allow the early detection and treatment of infected staff members.

Method We reviewed all staff exposures to hepatitis C reported to the occupational health department of a London teaching hospital over a 8-year period.

Results Of 105 exposures, 21% of staff attended for early (6 or 12 weeks) and late (26 weeks) post-exposure follow-up. Thirty-seven per cent attended early follow-up only and 1% attended late having not attended early follow-up. Forty per cent did not attend any follow-up appointments with us.

Conclusion With the availability of effective treatment for early HCV infection, it is vital that occupational health departments encourage staff to attend at least for early follow-up. Access to HCV-RNA testing at this early stage should allow detection and early treatment of the small proportion who seroconvert.

Keywords      Compliance; hepatitis C; occupational exposure

Correspondence to: Sian Williams, Occupational Health and Safety Unit, Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG, UK. Tel: +44 20 7830 2509/2510/2511; fax: +44 20 7830 2512; e-mail: sian.williams{at}royalfree.nhs.uk


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.