CDC Updates Recommendations for Managing Hepatitis B in Providers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an update to its 1991 recommendations regarding the management of hepatitis B infections in healthcare providers and students, and the prevention of its transmission to patients. This guidance, published in the July 6, 2012, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, is for chronically infected providers and students, not those who have an acute infection. In issuing this update, CDC considered that hepatitis B virus transmission from providers to patients is at most very rare, that infection with hepatitis B is decreasing, that vaccination policies are effective, that effective therapies are available, and that restrictions are inconsistent with other recommendations. CDC also notes that standard infection control precautions, use of safer devices, and implementation of workflow risk reduction strategies are all effective in reducing the risk of transmission of bloodborne pathogens.