Case 44
Healthcare workers can transmit blood-borne virus (BBV) infections to their patients during the course of performing exposure prone procedures. To reduce the risk of this happening, healthcare workers entering the National Health Service who wish to perform EPPs in the UK must be tested for BBV infection. Hepatitis B- infected healthcare workers may perform EPPs providing they are HBE antigen negative and have a viral load below 200 IU/ml, subject to annual viral load checks. If their viral load is >200 but < 20,000 IU/ml, then they may suppress HBV replication using nucleos(t)ide analogue antiviral therapy, subject to 3-monthly viral load measurement. Healthcare workers known to be currently infected with hepatitis C virus are not allowed to perform EPPs but may do so if they are clear of HCV RNA 12 weeks after antiviral therapy. HIV-infected healthcare workers may perform EPPs if their viral load is suppressed to < 200 copies/ml whilst on combination antiretroviral therapy, subject to 3-monthly monitoring.