2019 Volume 82 Issue 1 Pages 6-11
Recently, prevention of hospital acquired infections is becoming more important. There are many opportunities for patient‐provider and patient‐patient infections in dental hospitals and clinics. It is desirable, but unrealistic, to perform serological blood screening at most dental hospitals and clinics. Thus, we can only ask patients about their history of infection. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of three nosocomial infectious diseases, hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and syphilis, in patients seeking treatment. We investigated the effectiveness of detecting these diseases using a questionnaire, conversational questioning, and a combination of the two. We conducted a serological blood screening on 1,429 patients prior to hospitalization in the department of dentistry and oral surgery at a hospital in Kyoto prefecture from April 2012 to March 2017. The prevalence of hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and syphilis among the patients respectively, was 2.0% (n=29), 0.6% (n=8) and 0.1% (n=2), for a total prevalence of 2.7%. The questionnaire demonstrated an effectiveness of 46.2% for sensitivity and 100% for specificity. The conversational questioning demonstrated an effectiveness of 47.6% for sensitivity and 100% for specificity. The combination of both methods demonstrated an effectiveness of 71.8% for sensitivity and 100% for specificity. While a significant improvement in detection was made by using both methods, 28.2% of the patients with infectious diseases still went undetected. Above all, it is considered necessary to take standard precautions with all patients. Shika Igaku (J Osaka Odontol Soc) 2019; Mar; 82(1): 6‐11.
