[Hepatitis diseases in health occupations (exemplified by Lower Saxony federal land)].

We analysed the incidence of hepatitis among members of the medical profession (doctors, dental surgeons, nurses and medical assistants) by extracting the relevant figures from the total number of hepatitis cases that had been reported to Lower Saxony Public Health authorities between 1976 and 1986. It was found that the incidence and hence the risk of contracting hepatitis A was two to three times higher in particular for the nursing profession than for the total population and also than for doctors and dental surgeons. Although the incidence of hepatitis B has gone down in recent years, the risk of getting infected is definitely higher for doctors, dentists and nursing staff than it is for the total population. This shows that all necessary precautionary and hygiene measures have not yet been fully observed for the members of professions engaged in health care. All persons active in health have an increased risk of being infected with hepatitis non-A-non-B, compared with the overall population. This enhanced risk of hepatitis A infection for the nursing profession and of hepatitis non-A-non-B infection for all medical staff including doctors and dentists prompts us to demand that these two types of disease should also be included in the list of professional diseases.