August 15, 2013

New PEP Guidelines Recommend 3-Drug ART After Occupational HIV Exposure

blogger_HIVThe U.S. Public Health Service this month released updated guidelines for post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) after occupational exposure in healthcare settings to blood or other body fluids that may contain HIV. The new recommendations call for immediately starting a 4-week regimen containing at least 3 antiretroviral drugs.

 

To ensure timely post-exposure management and administration of PEP, "clinicians should consider occupational exposures as urgent medical concerns, and institutions should take steps to ensure that staff are aware of both the importance of and the institutional mechanisms available for reporting and seeking care for such exposures," the guidelines state.

Although the principles of exposure management remain unchanged from the previous guidelines issued in 2005, recommended antiretroviral regimens for PEP and the duration of follow-up testing have been updated, David Kuhar from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and fellow members of the U.S. Public Health Service Working Groupwrite in the August 6, 2013, advance online edition of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

The guidelines are intended for healthcare personnel who have the potential for exposure to infectious material, including (but not limited to) emergency medical service personnel, nurses, physicians, pharmacists, therapists, technicians and laboratory workers, dental personnel, health facility housekeeping staff, and people who perform autopsies.

The guidelines are intended for healthcare personnel who have the potential for exposure to infectious material, including (but not limited to) emergency medical service personnel, nurses, physicians, pharmacists, therapists, technicians and laboratory workers, dental personnel, health facility housekeeping staff, and people who perform autopsies.

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