Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
Services 2006 ) including the recent Irish guidelines on the
prevention of blood borne viruses in healthcare settings
(Department of Health and Children, DoHC 2005).
Despite these guidelines the prevalence of both Hepatitis B Virus
(HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in this patient population has
been consistently shown to be greater than that of the general
population. Cristina et al (1997) found the prevalence of HCV in
their region of Italy to be 2.9%, but found it to be almost ten times
greater in their haemodialysis population at 22.6%.
Katsoulidou et al (1999) describe a prevalence of HCV of 22.5% in
their dialysis population in Greece compared with a general
population prevalence of only 1%. In a study of almost 3000
patients across 43 dialysis centres in Germany, the prevalence of
HCV was 7% in the dialysis population, compared with a general
population rate of between .42% and .84% (Hinrichsen et al 2002).
Aim of the review:
The aim of this review was to explore the literature surrounding the
transmission of blood borne viruses in Haemodialysis Units
internationally.
This review:
� elucidated the possible causes of transmission recurrent in the
literature
� gave insight into practices which increase risk
� indicated areas for future research.
Search and review methodology:
A search of online databases was undertaken to ascertain current
research on this topic. Keywords included “Hepatitis”, “Infection
Control”, “Blood Borne Viruses”, “Haemodialysis & Dialysis” and
Hepatitis B & C”. The databases included the Cumulative Index of
Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINHAL) 1982 to date, Medline
and Ovid 1966 to present. A general search of GOOGLE (scholar)
was also undertaken.
Manual searches were also carried out in libraries of HSE and Non
HSE sites, third level institutions and professional bodies (these
searches were typically for primary source material not available on
the internet, e.g. European Dialysis Transplant and Nephrology
Nurses Association Journal.)
The majority of papers were sourced in Nursing, allied health care
professionals and scientific journals, with the scientific journals
providing much of the data.
The strategies employed in healthcare facilities to prevent
transmission (e.g. Standard & Universal Precautions, CDC guidelines
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