For more than 2 decades, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has
stated an official position to inquirers (eg, lay public, physicians, nurses, and
other health care professionals) about the risk of infectious disease transmission
from a common communion cup. Although no documented transmission of any infectious
disease has ever been traced to the use of a common communion cup, a great deal of
controversy surrounds this issue; the CDC still continues to receive inquiries about
this topic. In this letter, the CDC strives to achieve a balance of adherence to scientific
principles and respect for religious beliefs.
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References
- Experiments on the communion cup.J Hyg. 1967; 65: 37-48
- Survival of bacteria on the silver communion cup.J Infect Dis. 1943; 73: 180-190
- Infection hazards of the common communion cup.Can J Public Health. 1967; 58: 305-310
- Bacteria on the common communion cup [letter].Ann Intern Med. 1993; 118: 572-573
- What is the risk of infection from common communion cups? [letter].JAMA. 1973; 225: 320
- Memorandum on the infections hazards of the common communion cup with especial reference to AIDS.Eur J Epidemiol. 1988; 4: 164-170
- The hazard of infection from the shared communion cup.J Infect. 1988; 16: 3-23
Loving AL, Wolf L. Effects of holy communion on health [Abstract Q-298}. Proceedings of the 97th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology; 1997 May 4-8; Miami Beach, Fla.
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© 1998 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
