Needle-Stick Exposure and Hepatitis

To the Editor.—  In response to the question as to what action should be taken after accidental needle-stick exposure when the contact patient is not known to have hepatitis (240:2325, 1978), the Seattle-King County Health Department's viral hepatitis case survey results may be helpful. All patients whose cases were reported were contacted by a nurse and asked about possible exposure sources. These sources included work in the health professions and needle exposures. During a two-year period, only one patient recalled an accidental needle-stick exposure. It had occurred eight months before her illness, and she was given standard immune serum globulin at the time. Her hepatitis was not type B.Although only an estimated 40% to 50% of hepatitis cases were reported in the metropolitan Seattle area (1.2 million people) during that period, it seems safe to infer that while needle-stick exposures to serum from persons with unknown hepatitis antigen status