Prevalence of parenteral viral hepatitis as a professional disease in medical workers in the Northwestern Federal District

Currently, the problem of parenteral viral hepatitis HBV and HCV has become extremely urgent due to an increase in morbidity, an increase in the number of patients with chronic forms of infection, and high mortality rates from complications. 

The aim of the study consists in considering the level of prevalence of the incidence of hepatitis viruses HBV and HCV among medical personnel in the Northwestern Federal District (NWFD), assessing the potential risk of infecting this group of workers while performing their professional duties.

Analyzed the reporting forms of the FBUZ «Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Leningrad Region» on the frequency of detection of the surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus (HBsAg) and antibodies to viral hepatitis C (anti-HCV) among various population groups in 2009–2017; form No. 60/u FBUZ Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the city of St. Petersburg on the registration of primary cases of hepatitis among the population of St. Petersburg for 2007–2017. Retrospective analysis of a sample from the medical history of 227 patients with established occupational diseases (PD) from the influence of a biological factor.

As a result of the study, it was found that out of 227 health workers in the Northwestern Federal District, viral hepatitis B and C were officially diagnosed in 4 patients, which is 1.7% of all established cases of occupational diseases (3 doctors and 1 nurse). In the Leningrad region for the period from 2009 to 2015, the incidence of the hepatitis virus HBV among medical personnel varied in the range of 0.1–0.3 per 10,000 people. The morbidity rate of hospital patients was significantly higher, which created a certain risk of infection of health workers in the process of work. But at the same time, over 6 years, the incidence of HCV infection among medical personnel has halved from (0.2 in 2009 to 0.1 in 2015). 

The incidence of MR in the NWFD with viral hepatitis HBV and HCV is not high among the entire population as a whole and in a number of individual groups of the population (pregnant women and patients admitted to the hospital for planned surgical interventions), but and at the current level of disease, the registration of all 4 patients with an officially established diagnosis of occupational hepatitis over 17 years suggests the presence of significant shortcomings in the system of investigating the causes of hepatitis MR virus HBV and HCV infection. In particular, it seems expedient when registering a case of blood contact hepatitis in MR, to record in the reporting documents not only his profession and place of work, but also his specialty with an indication of the risk of infection that existed in the process of work when in contact with the blood of patients.

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