Hepatitis C: a danger to healthcare workers.

There is no vaccine to prevent hepatitis C. The disease has infected more than 4 million people in the United States. Up to 10,000 people in the United States will die annually from the disease and that number will triple by the year 2010 (more than AIDS) (National Institutes of Health, 1997). The primary transmission route is through blood. The risk to healthcare workers of becoming infected after exposure from a needle stick is between 1.2% to 10%, whereas for HIV it is 0.3%. Healthcare workers must shift their self-protection focus from HIV to hepatitis C. Annual education on Universal Precautions must emphasize the risk of hepatitis C. Further, all healthcare workers should be baseline-tested immediately following exposure.