Herpes Exposure at Work

We just found out that a temporary employee who worked in our plant for the past couple of months (yesterday was her last day) told her supervisor yesterday that she has herpes. The temporary employee had open sores on her arms, her neck and across the lower part of her back. She had been seeing a doctor but did not tell anyone what the problem was until now.

She also told the supervisor that she is and has been contagious.

I know we have to be careful when dealing with private health information. However, we are concerned about other employees being exposed to the herpes virus. What action, if any, should we take?

Comments

  • 4 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • [font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 12-30-05 AT 12:59PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Since the employee is gone - is there any potential for future exposure that has not already occurred? If not, the damage has been done and I would make information available about herpes symptoms and treatment. I know nothing about that "disease" and would guess that other employees do not, either. As far as risk, I would worry most about the liability of the company, not the privacy issue. I would keep the prior employee's name out of the information distributed. This kind of reminds me of the lice situation that occurs at elementary schools when there is an outbreak.
    I hope this helps, at least a little bit.
  • >[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON
    >12-30-05 AT 12:59 PM (CST)[/font]
    >
    >Since the employee is gone - is there any
    >potential for future exposure that has not
    >already occurred? If not, the damage has been
    >done and I would make information available
    >about herpes symptoms and treatment. I know
    >nothing about that "disease" and would guess
    >that other employees do not, either. As far as
    >risk, I would worry most about the liability of
    >the company, not the privacy issue. I would
    >keep the prior employee's name out of the
    >information distributed. This kind of reminds
    >me of the lice situation that occurs at
    >elementary schools when there is an outbreak.
    >I hope this helps, at least a little bit.


    We did something very similiar - announce a possible exposure and give information on symptoms and treatment. Just don't identify the person. Our situation was an employee with measles that worked in the same area with two pregnant ladies. I spoke to both of them directly about it - the rest was just a general announcement.

  • We've had meningitis (viral), head lice and hepatitis several times over the years (well we haven't but some ee's have!)and the faster you can get info into their hands on it the faster you can calm the waters. CDC on-line has great FAQ's on specific issues that we print and give out when we have a "panic." You can get these at [url]www.cdc.gov[/url]. It seems if they see we got the info from CDC instead of a med site, they seem to take it as the "authority" on the subject.
  • Out of curiousity, how would you handle the situation if the employee was still employed?
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