Hi The decision to vaccinate or not would need to based on the outcome of an assessment of risk. So does your client work with people or in environments where there is (or is a likelihood) of high incidence of Hep A? If not, then routine vaccination would not be required. Hep A is quite rare in the UK and is more associated with developing countries with poor standards of sanitation and hygiene. Sam

Its not ideal to categorise or discriminate against people, but sometimes we may need to. If you work in health care (nurse or doctor) or in a vet for example then you would expect to be vaccinated against certain blood bourn viruses, this would be based on the working environment and the tasks undertaken so no discrimination. However, in a social care setting the assessment for inoculations would be based on the people that your staff provide support or care services, for example, people with HIV/AIDS, drug users, people with learning disabilities, long term prisoners, etc. This would also be coupled with the risk of being bitten, scratched, or providing personal care etc. So my advise is, do not have a blanket approach and jab everyone but consider the risk assessment based approach. Note: Inoculations are not always effective and do not work for every person, people may feel that they can relax other precautions like not wearing gloves because they think they are protected by the vaccination. You also cannot force people to take the vaccine, staff can and do refuse.

Toe: you may not force them to have the innoccultions. They cannot force you to employ them!

"Individuals at occupational risk These include: Laboratory workers who may be exposed to hepatitis A in the course of their work. Staff of some large residential institutions, as transmission can occur more readily, and also staff of other institutions where standards of personal hygiene among clients or patients may be poor. Sewage workers who are at risk of repeated exposure to raw sewage. People who work with primates that are susceptible to hepatitis A infection. NB: most healthcare workers are not at increased risk of hepatitis A and routine immunisation is therefore not indicated" Boring. Need a course, albeit a two-parter, to give long-term immunity. Single jab = maybe a few years. Another over-response to a low-risk situation. Why bother with worrying about cost, the jab is a 40-quidder....get it from petty cash (have fewer meals on the company tab to compensate).