infectious disease

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should nurses continue working after being infected with hepatitis c?

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Specializes in Research,Peds,Neuro,Psych,.
should nurses continue working after being infected with hepatitis c?

Why on earth NOT??? Can you be more specific?

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Why on earth NOT??? Can you be more specific?

just wanted to know what other nurses thought about it,i heard comments from some that think you should not work as a nurse or do any type of pt care,i don't agree.i know of a nurse that was let go after being found positive with hep c and another respiratory tech who got expose to hep c after a stick in nicu,she quit after she found out she was positive.

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Specializes in Research,Peds,Neuro,Psych,.

I find it extremely bizarre that she would have contracted Hep C from the NICU. Hep C is very rarely transmitted to the children of infected mothers..but I guess it's not impossible. It is most easily transmitted through IV drug use and blood transfusions, and extremely rarely through sexual contact or transmitted to a fetus.

It is virutally impossible for this nurse to be a danger to patients unless she were bleeding profusely into a patient's open wound or vein. It just doesn't happen. If she was fired for having Hep C, then she is being discriminated against.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Peds, OB, L/D, Ortho.

why not continue to work? if proper precautions are taken this is not a problem. i myself have been working and living with hep c for at least the past 10 years. i figure i was infected at work. the docs agree. so....just a reminder fellow nurses...wear your ppe!!!!! :)

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