[Usefulness of warning flags in the handling of biological samples in an emergency room]

The present study evaluates the utility of biohazard precautions labels for identifying biological samples of patients with probable severe transmissible infectious diseases. The study was performed in a total of 633 patients in the emergency department of a General Hospital. In an anonymous way we determine the presence or absence of serological markers of HIV and hepatitis B infection (HBsAg) and we evaluated the labeling of the sample. Our results demonstrate the very low usefulness of this common procedure: a total of 54.5% of HIV positive patients and 87.5% of those positive to HBsAg were not marked correctly. We discuss the necessity of using universal precautions instead of labeling samples in the current way.