ASSESSMENT OF TRANSMISSION OF HEPATITIS C VIRUS IN INVASIVE PROCEDURES

Abstract

Since 1989, when Choo and coworkers identified a new virus i.e. virus Cas being responsible for most cases of hepatitis non-A, non-B, an impressive number of articles upon the biology and epidemiology of the virus has been published. Infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. Hepatitis C virus is transmitted primarily through contaminated blood and less effectively by human body secretions, but a large proportion of patients have no clearly identifiable parenteral risk factors for viral acquisition. (Sharara, 1997).

Post-transfusional contamination was the number one risk factor before 1991. Other risk factors exist especially in patients with multiple surgical endoscopy (Chaveau, 1996). In addition to infection following intravenous drug use, preliminary studies conducted by Trepo and Bailly in 1996, suggested that the most recently infected patients have become infected following surgery or endoscopy without transfusion.

The repeated use of instruments in clinical procedures carries a risk of subsequent patient infection, necessitating disinfection or sterilization (Tucker, 1996). So inadequate disinfection of endoscopes and associated instrumentation can result in transmission of infection to patients (Orsi et al, 1997). Chanzy and coworkers in 1999 investigated the degree to which a thorough manual cleaning washing-disinfection procedure can decontaminate all channels of a flexible submersible endoscope experimentally contaminated with HCV. The results provided evidence that patient-to-patient endoscopic transmission ofHCV