Injection safety practices in a main referral hospital in Northeastern Nigeria

No adherence of safe injection policies remains a major challenge, and, worldwide, annually, it leads to 21 million new hepatitis B cases and 260,000 HIV infection cases. This descriptive observational survey was conducted to determine the level of adherence to universal precaution for safe injection practices in the hospital.

The study units were selected using a simple random sampling of injection services provider/phlebotomist in 27 units/wards of the hospital. The study instruments were observation checklist and interviewer administered questionnaires. EPI info (version 3.5.2) software was used for data entry and generation of descriptive statistics was done with units of analysis (units/wards) on injection safety practices of health workers, availability of logistics and supplies, and disposal methods.

Only 33.3% of the units (95% CI, 16-54) had non-sharps infectious healthcare waste of any type inside containers specific for non-sharps infectious waste and 17 (77.3%) of the observed therapeutic injections were prepared on a clean, dedicated table or tray, where contamination of the equipment with blood, body fluids, or dirty swabs was unlikely. Absence of recapping of needles was observed in 11 (50.0%) units giving therapeutic injections. Only 7.4% of units surveyed had separate waste containers for infectious non-sharps.

This study depicts poor knowledge and a practice of injection safety, inadequate injection safety supplies, and non-compliance to injection safety policy and guidelines.