Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2018

DOI

10.26633/rpsp.2018.93

Publication Title

Revista Panamericana De Salud Publica

Volume

42

Pages

UNSP e93 (5 pages)

Abstract

The rate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections among health care workers that is caused by sharps injuries is higher in the Caribbean and Latin America than in other regions of the world. To respond to and reduce occupational exposures to bloodborne pathogens while also strengthening capacities in the Caribbean, needlestick injury prevention training programs for health care workers were implemented, beginning in 2011. The programs included lectures, workshops, policy reviews, evaluations of safety devices, and workplace assessment. During the training, baseline data from health care workers on their personal history of needlestick injuries and bloodborne pathogen exposure was collected. That baseline data showed that 40% of the participants had sustained sharps injuries during their professional career. In this capacity-building effort, 210 health care workers from five countries have been trained, six health care centers in the Caribbean have been evaluated. and occupational safety and health committees have been established in various countries to monitor and improve safety policies and practices.

Comments

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. No modifications or commercial use of this article are permitted. In any reproduction of this article there should not be any suggestion that PAHO or this article endorse any specific organization or products. The use of the PAHO logo is not permitted. This notice should be preserved along with the article’s original URL.

ORCID

0000-0001-8094-261X (Akpinar-Elci)

Original Publication Citation

Akpinar-Elci, M., Bidaisee, S., Durgampudi, P., Radix, R., Rodriquez-Guzman, J., Nguyen, M. T., & Elci, O. C. (2018). Needlestick injury prevention training among health care workers in the Caribbean. Revista Panamericana De Salud Publica, 42, UNSP e93. doi: 10.26633/rpsp.2018.93

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