Hepatitis
C virus is spread from one person to another person by blood. How
can this happen? There are many ways that this can happen:
- A person is bleeding and there is blood on the person
on the persons cloths on the table, chair, and they could bleed onto
anything.
- This blood can be easily cleaned off with soap
and water. But the blood may spill on important medical or dental equipment
or instruments.
- Blood on medical or dental instruments or
equipment is dangerous. If this blood is from a person infected with HCV
then this equipment will be contaminated with the virus.
- If any of these contaminated instruments or
equipment are used on a patient, the patient could get infected with the
virus.
- A medical or dental person or assistant uses an
instrument or a medical or dental equipment that was used for another
patient.
- The instrument or equipment was not cleaned or
sterilized before using it on another patient
- The instruments became contaminated because someone
bled on them.
- The hands of the nurse or doctor or other
assistant had blood on them and they did not wash their hands or put on
clean new latex gloves and picked up the instrument with bloody hands.
- Injections: Egyptians get millions of injections every
year. Some of these injections may use clean sterile needles and sterile
syringes.
- Giving a safe injection requires training and
only trained persons should give injections.
- Needles and syringes should be used only once
and never reused.
- Medical and dental procedures: there are hundreds of
different medical and dental procedures that can spread HCV
- Every instrument the dentist uses in your mouth
can be contaminated from another patient if the instrument has not been
cleaned and sterilized.
- Doctors or nurses or other assistants use a
needle or any instrument that goes through the skin and is not clean and
sterile can infect you with HCV.
- Doctors and dentists use many different
instruments and if the instrument is reused and not clean and sterile you
can be infected with HCV.
- Sticking your finger for blood: For example the doctor,
or assistant, the laboratory assistant sticks your figure to get a sample
of blood for testing. If they use the same needle or lancet that was used
on another patient, you can get infected with HCV.
- Multi-dose vials. Many medications that are injected
come in small glass bottle or vial. These vials have more than one dose of
medication and are used to give injections to more than one person.
However, a new sterile needle and syringe have to be used each time or the
vial can be contaminated with HCV and then every person after that will be
infected with HCV. This potentially is a huge problem. Please see the
illustrations on this link.
Iatrogenic
infections play an important role in HCV transmission and prevention in
Egypt. These
are
infections that occur unintentionally
from medical or dental procedures. For example, injections
with
HCV
contaminated needles or syringes from trained or untrained medical or
dental
workers can transmit infection. Like injections, there are many other
medical
and dental procedures that cut, pierce, or puncture the skin.
Any
procedure
that can cause bleeding can in turn contaminate a medical or dental
instrument and
then if used before being cleaned or disinfected, can infect someone
else. These
unintended infections are called iatrogenic infections. Sometimes
medical or
dental workers, including doctors and their assistants, have not been
correctly
trained, or are careless, want to save money, or in some cases have not received any
training at
all.
To help prevent you or
your family from possibly becoming infected ask your doctor, dentist,
pharmacist,
or any health care professional: Can
you please tell me
how I can protect myself from getting infected with hepatitis c virus?
Also ask yourself this
question: “is this
medical or dental
care I am going to get, is it safe? Could I get virus C infection from
this
medical or dental care?
It is important to ask your
doctor or dentist or anyone who is giving you
medical, dental,
or
cosmetic care to advise you how to avoid iatrogenic exposure
to
HCV.
Ask this
question to your
doctor and their
assistants.
Ask
this question to your dentist and their
assistants.
Ask
the
nurse or any health care provider.
There
are many people in Egypt who provide
medical care, for example injections, who are not trained and have
little or no
knowledge about preventing HCV.
Be
sure to ask this
question to anyone who is giving you
medical care, especially if you think they have not received formal
training or
does not have a degree.
Iatrogenic
transmission of HCV is possible when disinfection and sterilization
techniques are inadequate, and contaminated equipment is shared among
patients.
In particular, studies have shown that HCV infection can occur among
patients
on hemodialysis, due to poor infection control, and the sharing of
contaminated
multidose medical vials and supplies (World
Health
Organization.
Hepatitis C - Global Surveillance Update. Weekly Epidemiological Record
75:17-28, 2000.)
In Egypt,
iatrogenic infections have been linked to the origin of this public
health
problem. One hypothesis is that more than 50 years ago before
the
advent
of disposable medical equipment, needles and glass syringes and other
medical
and dental equipment were not properly cleaned and sterilized before
re-use.
Countless injections and procedures were done with contaminated
equipment. With
the introduction of disposal medical and dental equipment, some of this
iatrogenic infection has been reduced.
Another important advancement was the introduction of screening blood
donors
for HCV and eliminating those who were HCV positive from the blood
banking
system. This was a world wide development to reduce and
eliminate
HCV
transmission by blood transfusion, other blood products, and
transplantation of
organs. Screening blood donors for HCV in Egypt has
been very successful in reducing HCV transmission by blood transfusion.
Nevertheless,
Iatrogenic
transmission of HCV continues to play a major
role in Egypt. see
References
Giving
or donating blood in Egypt is
safe. It is very important to know the difference between giving blood
and
receiving a blood transfusion. Giving blood is one of the greatest
humanitarian
gifts that anyone can give.
NOTE: This
page was designed for Egyptians and others living in Egypt. and not
for travelers to Egypt.
Nevertheless, advise for travelers, See Travel to Egypt.
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