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The epidemiology of needlestick and sharp instrument accidents in a Nigerian hospital
A A Adegboye1, G B Moss, F Soyinka
1School of Dentistry, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Objectives:
To characterize the epidemiology of percutaneous injuries of healthcare workers (HCWs) in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Design:
A cross-sectional survey of a random sample of HCWs regarding details of needlestick and sharp instrument injuries within the previous year.
Setting:
University hospital and clinics in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Participants:
Hospital personnel with potential occupational exposure to patients' blood.
Results:
Needlestick accidents during the previous year were reported by 27% of 474 HCWs, including 100% of dentists, 81% of surgeons, 32% of nonsurgical physicians, and 31% of nursing staff. The rate of needlestick injuries was 0.6 per person-year overall: 2.3 for dentists, 2.3 for surgeons, 0.4 for nonsurgical physicians, and 0.6 for nursing staff. Circumstances associated with needlestick injuries included unexpected patient movement in 29%, handling or disposal of used needles in 23%, needle recapping in 18%, accidental stick by a colleague in 18%, and needle disassembly in 10%. Sharp instrument injuries were reported by 15% of HCWs and most commonly involved broken glass patient specimen containers (39%). Almost all HCWs were aware of the potential risk of HIV transmission through percutaneous injuries, and 91% considered themselves very concerned about their occupational risk of HIV acquisition.
Conclusions:
The high frequency of percutaneous exposure to blood among HCWs in this Nigerian hospital potentially could be reduced by simple interventions at modest cost.
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