How serious is the occupational risk of needlestick injuries to health care workers?
A. One of the most critical control components of health care worker protection against bloodborne pathogens must be the reduction of sharps-related incidents. The statistics cited below provide a picture of the seriousness of the problem. • Hospital-based health care workers experience some 800,000 needlestick injuries each year in the United States (Jagger,1990). About 2% or approximately 16,000 of these are likely to be contaminated by HIV (American Hospital Association, 1992). Needlestick injuries account for up to 80% of all accidental exposures to blood. (Jagger, 1988). • Based on various studies, researchers have documented that needlestick injuries are under reported by health care workers and the number of exposures could potentially be much higher (Hamory, 1983). Chiarello (1992) cites several studies that found rates of under-reporting between 40.4% and 53% for nurses and 92% for laboratory personnel. Physicians under reported needlestick injuries by 70% to 95%. • In well-do
