BMJ 1994;308:1161 (30 April)

Letters

Test medical students while preclinical

EDITOR,--A M L Lever may be right in declaring that routine testing for hepatitis B e antigen before students enter medical school sets a dangerous precedent but is wrong to imply that infected students present no risk to patients.1 Medical students are likely to help in theatre during their clinical years and during the preregistration year as house surgeons. Unless universities alter the curriculums to abolish such clinical experience or the General Medical Council changes the mandatory requirements for registration, all students who are positive for hepatitis B e antigen will at some stage be an infective risk in theatre. When students have graduated and start surgical house jobs their employing hospital will, as a matter of course, ensure that they have been immunised against hepatitis B and, if they have not responded to the vaccine, screen them for markers of infection. So why not do this at medical school . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Hepatitis B and medical student admission
A M L Lever
BMJ 1994 308: 870-871. [Extract] [Full Text]

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