Healthcare-associated transmission of hepatitis B and C continues to occur in a range of community and hospital settings across EU/EEA countries and often results in large outbreaks, although the true extent of the situation cannot be fully determined due to under-reporting. A failure to adequately follow infection prevention control (IPC) precautions was reported in 30% of included studies. However, there were a number of outbreaks in seemingly low risk settings such as CT/MRI scanning units. The majority of transmission events occurred through blood transfusions or in dialysis units. Five large outbreaks of over 20 cases were identified, including two in Poland and one each in Belgium, Hungary and Slovakia. The number of patients infected from a single source within an event ranged from 1 to 53. Most events were reported from Italy (7 HBV and 12 HCV), Germany (8 HBV and 5 HCV) and the United Kingdom (8 HBV and 5 HCV). In 65 publications from 16 countries, 43 HBV and 48 HCV events were identified resulting in 442 newly infected patients.
We collected data on the country, number of patients, setting type and route of transmission. We searched the PubMed and Embase databases and grey literature over the period January 2006 to September 2021, for publications reporting transmission events after 2000 in the EU/EEA and UK related to a healthcare setting or procedure. We carried out a systematic review of published literature on healthcare-associated transmission of HBV or HCV in European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) countries and the United Kingdom to complement surveillance data and identify higher-risk settings. Healthcare-associated transmission was the second most common hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) transmission route according to 2006–2012 European surveillance data, but data quality and completeness issues hinder comprehensive characterisation of this important issue.
0 kommentar(er)
