The Prevalence of Needle Stick Injuries among Health Care Workers in Baquba Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Needle stick injuries (NSIs), also referred to as sharps injuries, percutaneous injuries and sharps exposures, represent accidental breaks in the skin with needles, scalpels or other sharp objects that have been in contact with a source patient's blood or body fluids[1]. Blood borne infections have been recognized as an occupational hazard for nearly 50 years [2]. However, it is only in the last 20 years that there has been a widespread recognition of the specific risk posed to health care workers ( HCWs ) by blood borne viruses such as hepatitis B, C and human immunodeficiency virus ( HIV ). While as many as twenty blood borne pathogens can be transmitted through accidental needle sticks, [3] the potentially life threatening are (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). A health care worker's chance of contracting HIV after an HIV-infected accidental needle sticks is one in 250, while the chance of contracting HBV after an accidental needle sticks is one in 20. The chances of contracting HCV after an HCV-contaminated accidental needle sticks average 3.5 in 100 [4].