Infected Physicians and Invasive Procedures: Safe Practice Management

There is currently no public policy that provides guidance concerning whether and when physicians infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and/or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can safely perform invasive procedures. A committee of experts in the fields of medicine, law, a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical infectious diseases 2005-06, Vol.40 (11), p.1665-1672
Main Authors: Reitsma, Angelique M., Closen, Michael L., Cunningham, Marshall, Minich, Henry N.F., Moreno, Jonathan D., Nichols, Ronald L., Pearson, Richard D., Sawyer, Robert G., Wispelwey, Brian, Tereskerz, Patricia M., Lombardo, Paul A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Decision Making
Disclosure
Disease transmission
Epidemiology. Vaccinations
Ethics, Medical
General aspects
Gynecologic surgical procedures
Health risk assessment
Hepatitis B - prevention & control
Hepatitis B - transmission
Hepatitis B virus
Hepatitis C - prevention & control
Hepatitis C - transmission
Hepatitis C virus
HIV
HIV Infections - prevention & control
HIV Infections - transmission
HIV/AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus
Humans
Infections
Infectious Disease Transmission, Professional-to-Patient - prevention & control
Infectious diseases
Medical personnel
Medical sciences
Occupational safety
Physicians
Physicians - ethics
Physicians - standards
Public policy
Risk Factors
Surgeons
Surgical procedures
Surgical specialties
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:There is currently no public policy that provides guidance concerning whether and when physicians infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and/or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can safely perform invasive procedures. A committee of experts in the fields of medicine, law, and biomedical ethics and 1 community member, aided by an advisory board, was established to produce recommendations for policy reform. An extensive literature review was conducted for these 3 infectious diseases, medicine, surgery, epidemiology, law, and bioethics to gather all relevant data. Special recommendations are made regarding the management of physicians who are infected with HIV, HBV, and/or HCV. This policy proposal includes a list of exposure-prone procedures and a decision chart that indicates under what conditions infected physicians can practice beyond the need for disclosure of their serological status.
ISSN:1058-4838
1537-6591
DOI:10.1086/429821