EMPLOYMENT in Public School system w/ HepC

Will my employer be notified of my infectious condition?
Will I be asked to take leave from my job?
If I have a scab on arm, should I keep this covered? Would someone get HepC from contact from dried up blood?
I live close to Newark, DE where do I find a hepatologist?
I will ask my GI specialist(Christiana Hosp) to recommend one.

VL 1million/count...all other blood work falls in normal range
Getting 3rd blood test for genotype. then liver biopsy.  I have disability insurance and this was't detected by using the normal liver blood work. It was found from the specific virus load check by my GPs recommendation. I thought I had lyme. I had blood transfusions in 80 and 84 with C-sections. Unbelievable that it could have been there this long.
Spread only Blood to Blood?? Right? I think the answers to most of these is...no one knows for sure.
thanks for your courage with this.

[amommy]

Hi there!

Welcome to the board.  

Your hep c does not in any way preclude you from your job in public schools, in fact there is no reason for your employer to know.  It is primarily (and most people say ONLY) transmitted through blood to blood contact.  This means, in the event you bleed, you need to take universal precautions like everyone else would.  Also, as far as the scab goes, IMHO it is very very unlikely for hep c to be transmitted this way.  If a person had an open would and their open wound came into contact with your scab, i would say the chances are still VERY REMOTE for transmission.  I'm sure some would disagree, but that is the case with just about everything concerning this disease.
    
I know a few people on this board have run into more trouble once divulging to their employers about the hep c.  So, I strongly recommend holding off.  

You have found a great site, I am sorry you are dealing with hep c, but if you stick around here, you will soon see that we are a bunch of (relatively) normal people who are battling this together!

[Drugs Sucks]

Hi
No ur employer doesn't need to know, but u have to becarefull though, like we all say..

Now then ur employer needs to know, Because if u have this and u got to go on the treatment u WILL not be feeling so good on lots of days after the shot each week and u will be losing days and I know that employers Freak over this because u have hep c and there are Kids around u all the time..
Do ur home work and print some pages out and if u do decide to tell u have alot to fall back on, there been a few people in here that had lost there job over this and alot of them take them to court to keep there jobs.

There are web site about employment how and what to do over this matter, I told my boss which he was my dad and did he freak out over this and i had showed him paper telling him and others about my condition that a person can't catch it in anyway poss. Inless there was a open cut that was bleeding and (Some how) it got in ur mouth or on a open cut, which that won't happen enless u are a emergency worker.. Never Know!

I was a sheet metal worker and make alot of airplane parts and did i cut my hands alot and my wife had taken and bandage me up alot and she has touch my blood over and over and as of today she DON"T have it.Yahoo! And she gets tested every six months.

I can remember where it at,i belive i got it on my other computer, there is web site that have the issue of hep c and the work force..
Does anyone have this??

Kenny

[sfbaygirl]

I am a middle school teacher and taught for 10 years in public schools before I stopped working for another reason. I had Hep C pretty much the whole time, I believe. In fact, I was diagnosed when I came down with Septis due to a hospital procedure and ended up in the hospital with high fever, joint pain, high liver enzymes etc. I went back to work teaching in a month. I never specifically told the school district. I did tell a few others that I trusted without problems. I believe that especially now that I am tenured and on tx , they would have to give me accommodations for illness if I needed.

Do you have to tell them? I would do it on a need to know basis. There is virtually NO way to pass this on except through blood and yes I would keep any wounds covered.

[goldyn]

This in noway diminishes your ablity to work with kids, i teach preschool classes, and because i am in close contact with the children , i always make sure i cover any wounds or scabs, i also contracted hcv in 1985 via blood transfusion with my twins, i am 1a with a starting viral load of 15,000,000 clear at 12 and 24 will do last shot this fri. and have worked the whole time, no one needs to know i told a couple of the people i worked with that i had a real bad fatty liver that was scarring and had to go on a type of chemo for a year to clear it up, it worked and helped explain my hair loss and that constant kind of tired look, i know this is a shock right now, but everything will come together for you in time, Please keep us posted on how everything is coming along....
                            Blessings
                                goldyn

[jools57]

I also work in a school...special education....take precautions with open wounds...bandaids... I also use those cute little latex gloves when bandaging kids owies... I'm planning on Tx ing when school is out for the summer ...that could be a possibility for you, unless you work in a year round school...I figure my employer really doesn't need to know I have hep C...
all the best to you...
Blessings