Transmission of Hepatitis B Virus to Multiple Patients from a Surgeon without Evidence of Inadequate Infection Control

Approximately 24 million operations are performed annually in U.S. hospitals by an estimated 133,000 surgeons. 1 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 1900 U.S. surgeons are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV), but reports of surgeon-to-patient transmission of the virus are uncommon. 2 Transmission of HBV to patients has been associated with health care workers with highly infectious disease who were positive for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and has generally involved breaches in standard infection-control practices, although correction of these deficiencies has not always prevented additional instances of transmission. 3 – 6 We report an outbreak of HBV . . .