POST 00712E : ACCIDENTAL NEEDLESTICK
Follow-up on Posts 00701E, 00706E and 00708E
31 August 2004
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Two more contributions were received on this topic. The first is from Anil
Varshney (mailto:[email protected]) from India. The second is from
William Dierick (mailto:[email protected]) from Belgium.
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Dear All
I am in total agreement with Amber Hogan. In fact sound training and
repeated with warnings as well as displaying injection safety measures in
posters at the site of use with visuals rather than text messages will go a
long way at addressing the issue. Needle cutters are a must, but should be
cheap enough to be bought in bulk by the service providers. And then these
should be collected by biomedical waste collection system if it exists ( as
in New Delhi India - where a private party collects the syringes, needles
and other biomedical waste from hospitals and clinics every day and then
disposes).
Wearing gloves and eye glasses must be mandatory for all in place of work.
However the issue relates to accidental injury that occurs when injection
devices are thrown away and not properly disposed - where children play
and/or garbage collectors handle them.
Most common infections that I have seen is the local infection on hands and
nails. A detailed study has not been done to see what are the diseases that
these rag pickers suffer which will give true indication of the threat, may
be one could also check their blood for HBV,HIV, HCV and other infections
and related to rag picking period.
Commonly such injuries are treated with TT injection, antibiotics. Rarely
does HBV vaccination given - and since the vaccination is not available in
public system for children above 1 year, the patient does not opt for it,
being costly and not readily available. Moreover since the disease
mentioned do not show up immediately they are far less related to the
needle stick injury.
One should give HBV vaccines to all such exposed persons since they run
high risk collecting garbage.
Regards
Dr. Anil Varshney
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I am reading this article with interest and appreciate the response of our
industry colleague.
I do not have opposing opinions on what Amber Hogan is stating on
prevention of the risks associated to sharps injuries (not only
needlesticks), but I feel that we need to add and emphasize also the
importance and necessity of giving training (and refreshers) to health care
workers on safe working practices, use and disposal.
Different studies have shown that education plays a vitally important role.
Also, preventive vaccination (HBV) of all workers should be part of the
combined preventive measures.
It is the combination of all those measures (Substitution, Engineering
controls, Safe Working Practices and Training) that will give the maximum
result on the elimination of the risks of sharps injuries.
Kind regards,
William Dierick
Business Development Manager
Medical Products - Europe,
Terumo Europe N.V.
Leuven, Belgium
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