Restriction on direct patien care

Are there any recomndaions for placing restrictions on direct patient care duties of agency police officers with active Hep C  whose duties include dealing with intoxicated, mentally ill patients who may get violent and asaultive. My specific concern is if a patient hits the officer in the face or bites him, the patient would be exposed to the officers blood and at risk f0r transmission. As Hepatitis C has been declared a "line of duty" hazard by numerous departments (ncluding NYPD) this would seem like a valid concern. After all, if workers can catch Hep C from patients, transmission in the other direction is an obvious possbility.

[Douglas Dieterich, MD]

There are no restrictions on health care workers unless they have been shown to transmit the virus to patients, so I don't think that you have to worry about it. The people who bite you are not really at risk of catching HCV from you, it is not transmitted that way. Just do your job and keep protecting us! DTD