Blood Borne viruses
Expectations
for physicians
who perform
EPPs
Requirement for HIV and HCV
testing changed from every
year to every three years in
draft policy
38
Dialogue Issue 3, 2015
Key elements
of the Draft policy
• Clarifies that those physicians who have
the potential to perform or assist in
performing exposure prone procedures
(for example, emergency physicians) are
expected to comply with the policy.
• Changes the requirement for HIV test-
ing and HCV testing from every year to
every three years.
• Strongly recommends that physicians
be immunized for HBV and tested to
confirm the presence of an effective
antibody response.
Provide your
opinion at
www.cpso.on.ca
• Requires annual HBV testing only for
physicians who have not been
confirmed immune to HBV.
• Requires physicians who want to begin
performing or assisting in performing
exposure prone procedures in Ontario
to be tested for HIV, HCV and HBV, if
they haven’t been confirmed immune to
HBV, before they commence performing or assisting in performing exposure
prone procedures in Ontario.
photo: istockphoto.com
D
o you perform or assist
in exposure prone procedures? If so, you may
wish to provide feedback
to a draft that is circulating which sets
expectations with respect to reducing
the risk of acquiring or transmitting
Hepatitis B