Can a worker continue to perform their work with Hepatitis B infection?
I would like to know if a worker should be continued to perform his work and duty with Hepatitis B infection.
Is it going to affect his fellow workers?
Will the industry have any food safety threat by this?
Any legal recommendation/ Guidelines will be highly appreciated?
In my personal opinion it will not put any threat to fellow food handlers, or the food safety issues.
Greetings Anil,
Yes, a worker can continue to perform his work and there are no indications that Hepatitis B is carried through food. The only requirement in most countries (Europe, USA, Australia, some China regions etc) is if you have been recently infected to excuse yourself from work for about 2 weeks and after that follow the Personal Hygiene rules as stated in your procedures (everyone does it anyway!).
However, I have to point out that some countries may not allow it, so you need to find out the specific legislation of your target customer group/country.
Regards!
May i ask if there is any documentation from regulatory authority? I have not found one in my country, South Asia.
You can check these links. They are official food safety guidelines or reports from generally acknowledged official sources and either state clearly that you can work with hepatitis B (with precautions) or don't mention it at all, focusing on hepatitis A as a more serious threat.
Use them as a reference/key words for further research for your own country!
https://www.food.gov...toworkguide.pdf
https://www.foodstan...cember_2019.pdf
https://www.fda.gov/...borne-pathogens
https://www.fao.org/...896e/i5896e.pdf
https://www.who.int/...ail/food-safety
I do have to say that there are mentions in forums that foreign workers with hepB have to undergo medical exams to get visa and some have mentioned that either they needed to undergo immunization through anti-hep B vaccination or were denied the visa altogether in UAE or Saudi Arabia. I can't say for certain what happens in your country in this case, especially since South Asia doesn't kind of narrow down the list of countries!!!
Your best chance is to contact your local food safety agency/authorities (and my personal input is to first ask generally what happens in this case, don't straight up go and say "I have this problem", cause from my experience sometimes the initial reaction is panic, and then decide on your course of action).
Hope something from above helps!