Recommendations for Preventing Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Hepatitis B Virus to Patients During Exposure - Prone Invasive Procedures

This report contains recommendations from CDC on preventing transmission of HIV and the Hepatitis B virus to patients during invasive procedures. It advises health care workers to follow universal precautions, which require that blood and body fluids of all patients be handled as if they contain bloodborne pathogens. For the protection of patients, equipment and devices that enter sterile areas of the body should be sterilized before being used on each patient; equipment and devices that touch intact mucous membrane should be sterilized when possible or undergo high-level disinfection; and equipment and devices that do not touch the patient or that touch only intact skin need cleaning with a detergent. The report looks into incidence of the transmission of Hepatitis B virus and HIV during invasive procedures. It concludes with recommendations, which say that all health care workers should adhere to universal precautions; currently available data provide no basis for recommendations to restrict the practice of health care workers infected with either virus who perform invasive procedures but not exposure-prone ones. The recommendations also say that exposure-prone procedures should be identified by medical, surgical, and dental organizations and institutions; heath care workers who perform such procedures should know their HIV-antibody status and their Hepatitis B status; and infected workers should not perform exposure-prone procedures unless they have been advised by an expert review panel on when they may continue to perform such procedures. Mandatory testing is not recommended, and health care workers whose practices are modified because of infection status should be provided other opportunities to continue with appropriate patient-care activities. Patients who have had exposure-prone procedures performed by infected workers should be notified on a case-by-case basis.