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1 Menu of State Healthcare Facility Hepatitis B Vaccination Laws 1 (2017)

handle is hein.scsl/mshhepb0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 











Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


Menu of State Healthcare Facility


Hepatitis B Vaccination Laws


This menu is one of a series of menus assessing vaccination requirements for patients and healthcare
workers in healthcare facilities. This menu specifically assesses hepatitis B (HepB) vaccination
requirements. Healthcare facilities across the country are increasingly requiring healthcare workers and
patients to be vaccinated for certain vaccine-preventable diseases to reduce disease outbreaks.' In
some  instances, facilities are establishing these requirements under mandates set forth by state statutes
or regulations. Depending on the vaccine, the legal requirements might apply to either patients,
healthcare workers, or both, and can include the following types of provisions:

    *  Assessment  Requirements
        Requiring a healthcare facility to assess a healthcare worker or patient's vaccination status2
    *  Administrative Requirements for Offering Vaccination
        Requiring a healthcare facility to offer a vaccination to a healthcare worker or patient'
    *  Administrative Requirements for Ensuring Vaccination
        Requiring a healthcare facility to ensure that a healthcare worker or patient has been
        vaccinated, unless vaccination is specifically exempted or declined4

Hepatitis B is a serious disease caused by a virus that attacks the liver.s The virus, which is called
hepatitis B virus (HBV), can cause lifelong infection, cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver, liver cancer, liver
failure, and death.6 HBV is transmitted when blood, semen, or another body fluid from a person infected
with the virus enters the body of someone who is not infected.' The Advisory Committee on
Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends that all children receive their first dose of HepB vaccine at
birth and complete the vaccine series by age 6-18 months.8 ACIP also recommends that older children
and adolescents who did not previously receive the HepB vaccine be vaccinated.'

In addition, HBV has long been recognized as an occupational risk for healthcare workers, including
trainees.10 The virus remains infectious for prolonged periods on environmental surfaces and is
transmissible in the absence of visible blood. In healthcare settings, this contact occurs primarily
through contaminated needles, syringes, or other sharp instruments.'2 Healthcare workers do not
recognize all exposures to potentially infectious blood or body fluids and, even if exposures are
recognized, often do not seek post-exposure prophylactic management.'3 In serologic studies conducted
in the United States during the 1970s, healthcare workers had a prevalence of HBV infection
approximately 10 times that of the general population.'4

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