Can Hepatitis B Sideline a Health Care Career?
Hepatitis B is 100-times more transmissible than HIV or hepatitis C because of the high volume of hepatitis B viruses in the blood of infected people, compared to the lower viral load in people infected with HIV or hepatitis C. A safe and effective vaccine does exist that prevents HBV infection, but unfortunately, not all patients have been immunized. Even when health care workers practice standard precautions and are as careful as possible, there is still a chance that a doctor or nurse could cut him or herself during an “exposure-prone” medical procedure, such as surgery, and infect a patient who has not been vaccinated. While there is no clear national policy on this topic, many medical organizations and hospitals require health care workers who perform exposure-prone procedures to be tested for HIV and hepatitis B and C. HBV-infected people who have high viral loads and the “e” antigen (HBeAg) have been restricted from performing surgery and other high-risk procedures. But these po
