World Hepatitis Day – 28th 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
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