Postexposure management of healthcare personnel to infectious diseases.
Healthcare personnel (HCP) are at risk of exposure to various pathogens through their daily tasks and may serve as a reservoir for ongoing disease transmission in the healthcare setting. Management of HCP exposed to infectious agents can be disruptive to patient care, time-consuming, and costly. Exposure of HCP to an infectious source should be considered an urgent medical concern to ensure timely management and administration of postexposure prophylaxis, if available and indicated. Infection control and occupational health departments should be notified for management of exposed HCP, identification of all contacts of the index case, and application of immediate infection control measures for the index case and exposed HCP, if indicated. This article reviews the main principles of postexposure management of HCP to infectious diseases, in general, and to certain common infections, in particular, categorized by their route of transmission, in addition to primary prevention of these infections.
Department of Medicine, Hamilton Health sciences, Juravinski hospital and Cancer Centre , Hamilton, Ontario , Canada.
Mazen S
MS
Bader
Annie A
AA
Brooks
Jocelyn A
JA
Srigley
D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000458:organization & administration; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017758:Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional / Q000517:prevention & control; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control*; D056990:Post-Exposure Prophylaxis / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States
Postexposure prophylaxis; blood-borne pathogens; healthcare personnel; infection control; vaccines