Hepatitis B Virus in a Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training Course

Abstract

A group exposure to cardiopulmonary resuscitation training manikins contaminated by saliva from a participant during the immediate presymptomatic infectious stage of "e" antigen-positive hepatitis B recently occurred. None of the 18 susceptible participants developed serologic or clinical evidence of new hepatitis B infection during the six-month postexposure observation period. The risk of transmission in this setting appears to be low. Postexposure prophylaxis does not appear indicated.