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Hepatitis B transmitted to dental patient

Infection Control Monitor, May 4, 2007

Despite proper infection control measures, a dental patient contracted the hepatitis B virus after undergoing oral surgery in the same oral surgery center, on the same day as another patient with the virus.

A 60-year-old woman was found to have hepatitis B after she sought medical care because of joint pain and fatigue, investigators reported in the May 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases. She had no traditional risk factors for the illness, but had undergone oral surgery several months earlier.

A patient with hepatitis B virus had oral surgery a couple of hours earlier that day and viral DNA from the two patients was identical, a doctor from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Reuters Health. The surgery center followed standard precautions for preventing transmission of bloodborne pathogens.

Investigators said to their knowledge this is the first documented case of patient-to-patient transmission of a bloodborne pathogen in a dental setting in the United States. "Although transmission such as we describe appears to be rare, this case reinforces the value of universal hepatitis B childhood vaccination (recommended since 1991 in the United States) and meticulous maintenance of bloodborne pathogen infection control for all patients in dental settings," the investigators concluded.

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