Healthcare Workers: Protect Yourselves!

Today's post was shared by Safe Healthy Workers and comes from www.cdc.gov

Healthcare workers may be at risk for exposure to vaccine-preventable diseases. Getting vaccinated is an important step to keep yourself, coworkers, patients, and family safe.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at risk for exposure to serious, and sometimes deadly, diseases. If you work directly with patients or handle material that could spread infection, you should get appropriate vaccines to reduce the chance that you will get or spread vaccine-preventable diseases. Protect yourself, your patients, and your family members. Make sure you are up-to-date with recommended vaccines.

The term "healthcare workers" includes physicians, nurses, emergency medical personnel, dental professionals and students, medical and nursing students, laboratory technicians, pharmacists, hospital volunteers, and administrative staff.

Recommended Vaccines for Healthcare Workers:

Hepatitis B Vaccine

If you don't have documented evidence of a complete hepatitis B vaccine series, or if you don't have an up-to-date blood test that shows you are immune to hepatitis B (i.e., no serologic evidence of immunity or prior vaccination) then you should:

• Get the 3-dose series (dose #1 now, #2 in 1 month, #3 approximately 5 months after #2).
• Get anti-HBs serologic tested 1–2 months after dose #3.

Flu (Influenza) Vaccine

Get 1 dose of influenza vaccine annually.

MMR (Measles, Mumps, & Rubella) Vaccine

If you were born in 1957 or later and have not had the MMR vaccine, or if you don't have an up-to-date blood test...

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