Re: should I worry about hepatitis c?

On Sat, 04 Aug 2007 05:46:00 -0700, dacconverter <seagate1556@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

About 2 weeks ago, during a night-time shift, I was suturing up a deep
wound on a patient. The patient was a male, and a chronic IV drug
user. He was Hep C - positive, had liver enzymes drastically higher
than normal, and had just started taking the meds for hep C
treatment.

His wound at the time was bleeding heavily.

When suturing, I passed the suturing needle from one side of the wound
to another with my fingers. I do remember having grabbed the sharp end
of the needle in the middle of suturing and then stuck it into the
other side of the wound. ( all using my fingers instead of a
hemostat )

I wasn't injured ( at least not to my knowledge; maybe I was stuck
"microscopically" ? ) in the process. I didn't bleed and gloves were
not visibly punctured, although I remember grabbing the suturing
needle by its sharp tips. It was a pretty stupid thing to do.

Is this an occupational exposure? Should I worry about having
contracted Hep C ?

Of course "it" would be classified as an occupational exposure - assuming you
weren't moonlighting at the time ;-)

The real question is: what exactly is "it".

If you didn't puncture your glove, "it" is nothing.

If you *did* puncture your glove - microscopically or otherwise - "it" could
still be nothing, but "it" could also be something, and you won't know which
"it" is until you get an HCV antibody test.

Bottom line: after four weeks from the incident, get an HCV antibody test,
regardless of what you think actually happened. It usually takes a few weeks
for antibodies to be expressed in sufficient quantity to register a positive
result, so testing too early may provide a false-negative result.

With any luck, "it" will turn out to truly be nothing.

Cheers

/greyhackles
.

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