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WASHINGTON
For the first time, Diane Mawyer, RN, is telling the traumatic story of her exposure to hepatitis C (HCV) through a needlestick injury on the job, and her subsequent fight for life through three organ transplants, at a meeting here of the Frontline Healthcare Workers Safety Foundation, today. The "Partners in Prevention" conference brings together a multi-disciplinary panel of leaders from the National Institute of Health (NIH), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Veterans Administration (VA) and nursing and medical professional societies to address the critical public health and policy issues surrounding HCV, including prevention, screening and early diagnosis and treatment of workers whose jobs put them at risk for infection.
"When I was exposed twenty years ago, very little was known about HCV and the risks associated with needlestick injuries and exposure to blood borne pathogens," says Ms. Mawyer. "But with our growing understanding of HCV, it is crucial that we be proactive in screening and diagnosis. If my hepatitis C had been identified earlier, there's a good chance that my organ transplants could have been avoided."
According to OSHA, 600,000 needlestick injuries occur in U.S. hospitals alone every year, not including injuries to emergency medical workers, firefighters and other public safety professionals. While not everyone who experiences a needlestick injury will develop HCV, healthcare workers are among the highest risk groups for new infections. The risk of occupational transmission of HCV is 40-50 percent greater than the risk of occupational transmission of HIV, yet unlike HIV, there are no federal health regulations requiring screening, early intervention drug therapy, or post exposure prophylaxis.
"Healthcare workers like Ms. Mawyer are on the frontlines everyday looking out for our health and safety, and we need to do more to protect them," says Murray Cohen, Ph.D., MPH, CIH, chairman of the Frontline Healthcare Workers Safety Foundation. "By addressing the need for appropriate prevention measures, disease screening and post-exposure therapy guidelines at this conference, we hope to urge government, private employers and benefit providers to take action to protect workers from the debilitating effects of HCV."
In the absence of rigorous HCV screening and therapy requirements for healthcare workers, those at highest risk often go undiagnosed and untreated until the virus has caused serious liver damage, which can be fatal unless the patient receives a liver transplant.
A recent cost-benefit analysis conducted by the healthcare actuarial and consulting firm Milliman & Robertson, Inc., shows that every $1.00 spent on curative hepatitis C treatment now can result in about $4.00 of medical cost savings to employers, benefit funds, and taxpayers in the future. These savings not only mean dollars and cents, but the prevention of hepatitis C virus complications and surgeries.
Surprisingly, one of the most effective treatments available -- a combination of the antiviral drugs interferon and ribavirin -- is not being widely utilized, despite its potential to benefit the health of patients and its proven long-term cost effectiveness.
"Aggressive treatment of hepatitis C -- the earlier the better -- will benefit the patient, as well as help reduce the long-term cost associated with chronic liver disease," said John Wong, MD, Chief of the Division of Clinical Decision Making at the New England Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine.
Approximately $15 billion is being spent today by the U.S. Healthcare system to care for those with hepatitis C. By the year 2021, it is estimated that HCV costs will peak at an estimated $26 billion.
"If left undiagnosed and allowed to progress to chronic liver disease, HCV not only poses a serious, life-threatening health problem, but an emerging economic crisis for all infected individuals, their employers, benefit providers and workers' compensation carriers," says Dr. Cohen. "The value of prevention is skyrocketing."
The conference, which was held at the Washington D.C. Marriott, August 6-8,included such topics as implementing best practices guidelines for HCV exposure in the workplace, coping with hepatitis C's emerging economic crises, and the liability of governmental agencies, worker compensation, insurance and managed care organizations.
Hepatitis C, a chronic disease caused by a blood borne pathogen, affects four to five times as many Americans as HIV. Often undetected and left untreated, the virus is responsible for at least 30 to 50 percent of liver cancer cases in the United States.
Hepatitis C is spread through contact with infected blood. Blood transfusions that were administered before accurate blood-screening tests became available in 1992 are known to have been a major hepatitis C risk factor. Others at high risk are healthcare workers, firefighters, veterans and drug users. Furthermore, unlike hepatitis A and B, hepatitis C has no vaccine -- nor is there one on the horizon.
The Frontline Healthcare Workers Safety Foundation, Ltd., is dedicated to improving the working conditions for, and minimizing occupational risks to, frontline healthcare workers through ongoing risk assessment, research, education, and training programs. The central goal is to advance an organized, cooperative movement including healthcare workers, device manufacturers, government agencies, and institutional decision makers genuinely and uniquely concerned with positively impacting frontline healthcare worker safety and patient care.
Copyright © 2000 At Home Corporation.
This article posted August 14, 2000.