Hospital laundry workers - an at-risk group for hepatitis A?

Twenty-two laundry personnel at St. Luke's Hospital, Malta, were tested for seropositivity to hepatitis A together with 37 nursing aides working in pa ediatric and infectious disease wards, matched for age, who were used as co ntrols. IgG antibodies were found in 54.5% of laundry workers and 13.5% of nursing aides [odds ratio (OR) = 7.68; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.87- 33.83]. Furthermore, laundry personnel consistently handling dirty linen pr ior to washing showed an OR of 16.50 (CI = 1.19-825.57) as compared with co lleagues handling only clean items. These results would suggest that the in creased exposure of hospital laundry workers to potentially infected linen can constitute a risk of occupational hepatitis A for this group of employe es.