HEPATITIS C VIRUS AMONG HEALTH CARE WORKERS

: The purpose of our study was to describe the results of a seroprevalence survey for HCV antibody among health care workers at our center. 961 specimens were consecutively obtained under code and screened for anti-HCV by the second generation immunoblot assay (RIBA 2) and hepatitis B core antibody by CORAB test. After serum samples were tested, we reviewed demographic data and categorized four groups: intravenous drug abusers (IVDAs), blood recipients, health care workers and apparently healthy subjects. 51/97 (52.6%) IVDAs, 8/77 (10.4%) transfusion recipients, 12/472 (2.5%) health care workers and 8/285 (2.8%) apparently healthy subjects were anti-HCV positive. Furthermore dividing health care personnel by type of profession we found that surgeons have a higher seroprevalence (4.3%) compared to other professions. Therefore severe preventive standards are required for health care workers.