[Risk of nosocomial infection in intertropical Africa--part 3: health care workers]

Parts of the nosocomial infections issue are the professionally-acquired infections of health care workers. This problem is widely neglected in sub-Saharan Africa, and little is known on the subject, in spite of the high prevalence of blood-borne infections such as HIV or hepatitis B and C, and air-borne diseases like tuberculosis. Besides, unsafe practices and accidents like blood exposures are more frequent than in western countries. This is due to the lack of political concern, of safer equipment and of specific teachings. Most of this severe infections' treatments are long, difficult or unavailable in Subsaharan Africa. The loss of contaminated health care workers can then become devastating for their family and the fragile health care structures of those developing countries. Finally, one should not underestimate the risk of infection transmission from health care provider to patient, like in several past outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever.