[Biological risk. Relevant problems: risk to third parties].
Transmission of infections from healthcare workers to patients during clinical activities has been an issue for at least twenty years. Studies and general considerations on this topic have brought to consensus documents, guidelines and public health policies, that were sometimes different depending on which social and cultural backgrounds they referred to. Though crucial, this issue remains nowadays not completely resolved, especially if we consider that no agreement has been found on how to face the problem. In this complex framework a question arises about the potential role of the occupational physician. We are talking in fact about a risk that, though present in the working environment, does not directly involve the workers themselves, but rather the people the healthcare workers get in contact with. We may say it is not only a problem of occupational medicine, but rather an issue involving medicine in working environment. This is a real challenge for those who deal with job healthcare and security, even if it is fundamental to fully understand how to face it. After a synthesis of the problem in its conceptual and quantitative dimensions, we now offer some new food for thought and outline some operating clues for the occupational physician too, as a contribution for a common and effective solution.
Clinica del lavoro, Fondazione IRCCS Cà Granda, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano, Italy.
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Riboldi
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Carrer
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Magnavita
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Porru
D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission*; D006282:Health Personnel; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D017757:Infectious Disease Transmission, Professional-to-Patient; D009787:Occupational Medicine; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012307:Risk Factors