World Hepatitis Day – 28^th July

Hepatitis is a blood borne virus of the liver that can be spread to another person regardless whether the carrier is ill or not.

It is highly unlikely that a person would contract Hepatitis through everyday social contact as it is mainly transmitted sexually or as a result of exposure to infected blood.

For this reason, those working in health care, the emergency services, social work, janitorial, vehicle recovery/repair and in sewage works are at particular risk.  This list is not exhaustive however and employers should ensure that they consider infected blood as a potential hazard and the risk of hepatitis when carrying out their risk assessments.

Should you determine that there is a risk then there are some simple steps that can be taken to reduce it:

• Implement good industrial hygiene practices
• Reduce exposure to sharps
• Dispose of contaminated waste correctly
• Protect open wounds with waterproof dressings
• Finally, immunisation is available against the risk from Hepatitis B