Recommendations for pregnant employee interaction with patients having communicable infectious diseases

The transmission of communicable infectious diseases from hospitalized patients to health care providers is a well-documented phenomenon. This occurrence is of particular concern when the health care worker is a pregnant female and there is worry about the development of a congenital infection or transmission of infection at the time of delivery. Infection control practitioners and Employee Health Service personnel are often consulted by pregnant hospital employees who are concerned about interacting with patients having communicable infectious diseases, and appropriate advice is sought. Since it has often been necessary in the past to consult numerous resources in order to respond to these issues, we have compiled recommendations that can serve as a reference to help ICPs and Employee Health Service personnel deal with these situations.