No Immunity to Hepatitis - Hepatitis Patient Care?

BluegrassRN · Jun 22, 2011

There are so many things for which we have no vaccine...MRSA, VRE, strep, HIV, C. diff, the list goes on and on. Yet we don't refuse those pts. Most of your hep positive pts you won't even know about, as they don't know themselves.

Just use universal precautions and don't have sex or share needles with your pts. You should be fine.

kprince · Jun 22, 2011

All very good points. Thanks :)

merlee · Jun 22, 2011

There were hepatitis patients long before the vaccine!

Best wishes!!!

BabyLady, BSN, RN · Jun 22, 2011

I just received the results of my second titer after completing another round of hepatitis vaccinations. Again, they show no immunity. At this point, I throw in the towel and just make note of it. I'm not THAT concerned - no panic attacks or anything here - just wondering what this means as far as patient care is concerned. Will I be allowed to work with Hepatitis positive patients? Would it be wise for me to decline care of such a patient? Thanks for your help, everyone!

Unless your titers are showing zero, I would not assume that you have no immunity. We had a huge debate on this on another thread and if you research it, some research will show that for some people, titers do not have a reason to be high if there is no presence of an invasion. Also, a Hematologist told me that your titer levels can be affected depending on how soon after a vaccination you were tested...they take time to build. Test too soon can = low titers.

Universal precautions should be enough to protect you. There are tons of diseases, such as HIV, that have no vaccine at all...but if we work in healthcare, we cannot decline to work with those patients.

It is a risk we all assume when we enter the profession.

Floridanurse · Jun 22, 2011

I had a positive titer years ago and when I started current job was negative. They gave me another round of injections and then another titer. Titer never said positive. The employee health MD said since I had a positive one in the past, if I were exposed, my antibodies would kick in from having the vaccine. He said it isn't recommended to get a 3rd set of vaccines.

NAURN · Jun 22, 2011

I am also not immune to hep b after 2 rounds of the vaccine, never converted. I still take care of hep patients. If you are using universal precautions like you should be, there shouldn't be an issue.