Endoscopic transmission of hepatitis B virus.

G G Birnie, E M Quigley, G B Clements, E A Follet, G Watkinson

Although transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has long been recognised as a potential hazard of gastrointestinal endoscopy, there has been little evidence of direct patient-to-patient cross-infection after such procedures. We wish to report a case of type B viral hepatitis almost certainly acquired at endoscopy from an instrument sterilised in the conventional manner, but which had been used on the previous day on a patient with bleeding oesophageal varices who was incubating type B viral hepatitis.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Mehta, A. C., Prakash, U. B.S., Garland, R., Haponik, E., Moses, L., Schaffner, W., Silvestri, G. (2005). American College of Chest Physicians and American Association for Bronchology Consensus Statement: Prevention of Flexible Bronchoscopy-Associated Infection. Chest 128: 1742-1755 [Full Text]  
• Culver, D. A., Gordon, S. M., Mehta, A. C. (2003). Infection Control in the Bronchoscopy Suite: A Review of Outbreaks and Guidelines for Prevention. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 167: 1050-1056 [Full Text]  
• Bond, W. W. (2001). Overview of Infection Control Problems: Principles in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. SURG INNOV 8: 223-232  
• Luijt, D.S, Schirm, J, Savelkoul, P.H.M, Hoekstra, A (2001). Risk of infection by reprocessed and resterilized virus-contaminated catheters; an in-vitro study. Eur Heart J 22: 378-384 [Abstract]  
• Mitchell, D. (2001). British Thoracic Society guidelines on diagnostic flexible bronchoscopy. Thorax 56: 1i-21 [Full Text]  
• Bronowicki, J.-P., Venard, V., Botte, C., Monhoven, N., Gastin, I., Chone, L., Hudziak, H., Rhin, B., Delanoe, C., LeFaou, A., Bigard, M.-A., Gaucher, P. (1997). Patient-to-Patient Transmission of Hepatitis C Virus during Colonoscopy. NEJM 337: 237-240 [Full Text]