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Needlestick Injury
- Health care workers (HCWs) suffer between 600,000 and one million injuries from conventional needles and sharps annually. These exposures can lead to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS.
- At least 1,000 HCWs are estimated to contract serious infections annually from needlestick and sharps injuries.
- Registered nurses working at the bedside sustain an overwhelming majority of these exposures.
- Needlestick injuries are preventable. Over 80% of needlestick injuries could be prevented with the use of safer needle devices.
- Less than 15% of U.S. hospitals use safer needle devices and systems.
- In 1992, the Food and Drug Administration issued an alert to all health care facilities to utilize needleless IV systems wherever possible. This alert is merely a recommendation, not a mandate. Therefore, health care facilities are under no legal obligation to comply.
- The first safe needle designs were patented in the 1970s, and the FDA has approved over 250 devices for marketing as safety devices.
- More than 20 other infections can be transmitted through needlesticks, including: tuberculosis, syphilis, malaria and herpes.
Cost Savings from Needlestick Prevention
- Hospitals and health care employers in California are expected to save over $100 million per year after implementing the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration's requirement for safe needle devices.
- According to the American Hospital Association, one case of serious infection by bloodborne pathogens can soon add up to $1 million or more in expenditures for testing follow-up, lost time and disability payments.
- The cost of follow-up for a high-risk exposure is almost $3,000 per needlestick injury even when no infection occurs.
- Safe needle devices cost only 28 cents more than standard devices.
Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis B is now preventable due to the vaccine that must be offered to HCWs and is given to children at birth.
- Regulatory and legislative efforts were largely responsible for the reduction of deaths from hepatitis B as a result of vaccine programs.
- Following these regulatory and legislative efforts, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Bloodborne Pathogens Standard, cases of hepatitis B in health care workers dropped from 17,000 annually to 400 annually-and continue to drop.
- Transmission rate: 2-40%
Hepatitis C
- Testing for hepatitis C after needlestick injuries was only recommended in 1998. It is a silent epidemic. There could be thousands and thousands of nurses with occupationally acquired hepatitis C who do not know it.
- Hepatitis C is the most frequent infection resulting from needlestick and sharps injuries. Of health care workers who become infected, 85% become chronic carriers.
- Chronic carriers have the potential to spread the disease to others, including their partners.
- Drugs that slow the progression of hepatitis C are available, but average $1,700 each month.
- Hepatitis C leads to liver failure, liver transplants and liver cancer. A liver transplant costs $500,000.
- At least 4 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C.
- Transmission rate: 2.7-10%
HIV
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus that causes AIDS, a fatal disease.
- Advances in treatment prolong the time before HIV becomes AIDS. The drug treatment can cost up to $6,000 per month.
- 16,000 of the 600,000 to one million needlestick injuries each year result in HIV exposure.
- There are over 54 documented cases of HCWs with occupationally acquired HIV and at least 133 cases of possible transmissions of HIV.
- There are 35 new cases each year.
- Transmission rate: .2-.4%
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