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Abstract
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne, infectious, viral disease that is caused by a hepatotropic virus called Hepatitis C virus (HCV). The infection can cause liver inflammation that is often asymptomatic, but ensuing chronic hepatitis which result later in cirrhosis and liver cancer (Ryan and Ray, 2004). In Egypt, the level of hepatitis C virus infection is 10% - 15% , one of the highest in the world (El-Katsha, 2002).
In the health care setting, blood-borne pathogen transmission occurs predominantly by percutaneous or mucosal exposure of workers to the blood or body fluids of infected patients. Occupational exposures that may result in HCV transmission include needle stick and other sharps injuries, direct inoculation of virus into cutaneous scratches, skin lesions and inoculation of virus onto mucosal surfaces through accidental splashes. HCV does not spontaneously penetrate intact skin, and airborne transmission of the virus does not occur (Beltrami et al., 2000).
The occurrence of HCV among health care professionals ranges from 2% to 10% and risk of infection is correlated with the duration of the job, performing invasive procedures, and history of percutaneous accidents (Proietti et al., 2005).