Occupational sharps injuries in a Dublin teaching hospital

Contaminated sharps injuries pose a risk of infection to health care workers and represent a major workload for hospital occupational health departments (OHDs). The aim of this study was to review the epidemiology and management of sharps injuries in an Irish tertiary referral centre, which has not been previously described. Occupational health records of sharps injuries occurring between January 1998 and December 2000 inclusive were reviewed from the hospital OHD. A total of 332 sharps injuries were reported to the OHD in this period. More than two-thirds of injuries involved medical or nursing staff. Support staff such as cleaners and porters accounted for 13.5% of injuries. The majority of sharps injury recipients (86%) were immune to hepatitis B. Of those injured, 22% were not wearing gloves at the time of their injury. Eight source patients were hepatitis C antibody positive, two were HIV antibody positive and one was hepatitis B surface antigen positive. No instances of occupational acquisition of blood borne viruses were documented. The results of this study confirm that health care workers need further education to prevent sharps injuries, and that the risk of blood borne virus acquisition through an occupational sharps injury is low but not negligible.