Hepatitis B from Medical Professionals: How Rare? How Preventable?

Abstract

The well documented report of Rimland et al. on page 953 in this issue is the third example^{1 , 2} in the last several years of multiple cases of hepatitis B attributable to HB_s Ag-positive oral surgeons themselves rather than to contaminated instruments or inoculations. Although these disturbing findings may be regarded as no more than historical curiosities in a few years when hepatitis B vaccines and mechanisms for eliminating the chronic carrier state become available, development of a sensible interim approach is a real challenge. The fact that health-care personnel are more likely to acquire hepatitis from patients than to . . .