Professional paper
Infectious hepatitis as occupational disease
Laslo Kallai
; Interna klinika Medicinskog fakulteta Zagreb
Abstract
The problem of infectious hepatitis as a professional disease is discussed on the basis of 20 cases among the staff of the clinics of the Zagreb Medical Faculty (at Rebro) having occurred between 1947 and 1950. Tables 1 and 2 show subjective symptoms of the preicteric and objective symptoms of the icteric stage. Tables 3 and 4 show the ratio of the diseased members of the staff in various specialties to the total numbers of the staff m these specialties as well as their mutual relation at the various clinics, institutes and laboratories. The tables show that only those in close (direct or indirect) contact with patients fell ill. The relation between these two groups of employees is shown on Table 5. Epidemiological analysis shows that the cause of the infection lay neither in the communication or the virus through infected food or water nor in droplet infection. Had infection spread through these channels the difference between the two groups of employees - those having had contact with the patients and those having not - would not have been so sharp. The most likely source of infection is the direct or indirect contact with persons suffering from manifest or latent infectious hepatitis i. e. with their blood or feces. lt is not quite clear whether infection is as a rule peroral by means of hands infected with blood or feces or »inoculative« by a fortuitous stitch or other unskilful handling of such infected material as syringes, test-tubes &c. lt has been interesting to note that in one ward of the Internal Clinic where the cases of infectious hepatitis were concentraced, there were no employees manifestly ilI nor were there any latent or laboratory symptoms of virosis. This shows that epidemiologically important are not only the manifest cases of infectious hepatitis but also -and in a certain sense perhaps still more so- the subclinical and latent ones.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
187672
URI
Publication date:
12.6.1952.
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