Resource Articles

Occupational Health provides guidance to supervisors in managing an injured employee.

VUMC faculty and staff born after 1956 are required to be vaccinated against measles unless they have laboratory-proven immunity to measles.

Parvovirus B-19 infection is also known as Fifth Disease. Fifth Disease is usually a mild illness that resolves without medical treatment among children and adults who are otherwise healthy. However, pregnant women who are infected with Parvovirus during early pregnancy have a 5% risk of miscarriage. (Also see article Parvovirus B19 Exposure in Pregnancy.)

VRE (Vancomycin Resistant Enterocci) and MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus) are common in hospitals. Staph is a normal bacteria on human skin and Enterocci are normal bacteria in the human bowel. Patients who have been hospitalized for long periods develop resistant bacteria as a result of exposure to many antibiotics or the hospital environment. In recent years resistant organisms have become very common in the community and patients often bring them into the hospital.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires noise in the workplace to be below 90 decibels over an 8 hour shift (a method called time weighted average is used for this measurement).

Anyone who is at risk for contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials is strongly encouraged to receive the hepatitis B vaccine series.

Cytomegalovirus, or CMV, is a herpes virus that most women of child-bearing age have already acquired.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a virus that can be transmitted to a developing child before birth. CMV infection is usually harmless and rarely causes illness in adults.