AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE FREQUENCY OF NEEDLE STICKS INJURIES AMONG MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS AND AN EXAMINATION OF THEIR UNDERLYING CAUSES IN A HYDERABAD TEACHING HOSPITAL

Background: Needle stick injuries (NSI) are known occupational risk for health care workers.NSI carry the highest risk of transmission of various blood borne infections. The most common causes of NSI differ from hospital to hospital .Prevention of NSI in a hospital can be planned by doing a root cause analysis. Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted amongst Healthcare workers (HCW) from January to December 2022 in a teaching hospital. All the HCWs who encountered NSI were interviewed to know the details of place of injury in the hospital, cause of injury, viral markers of source and HCW and vaccination status of HCWs. Exposed HCWs were followed up for 6 months for any seroconversion. Results: The incidence of NSI in our study was 0.18. Majority of the NSIs occurred in the ER, ICU's and wards. The most common cause of NSI was improper sample collection followed by improper disposal of sharps. 35.3 % of the source patients were HBV positive and 23.52% were HIV positive. None of HCW was positive for HBV, HIV & HCV on baseline screening. 35.3% of them were protected against HBV infection. Follow up of health workers done 1,3,6 months after NSI revealed that 90.6% healthcare workers were tested negative for HBV, HIV and HCV. Conclusion: Repeated training of HCW in hospitals regarding adherence to safety precautions for prevention of NSI's, proper technique of sample collection ,proper disposal of biomedical waste and prevention of recapping of needles should be undertaken based on the common causes of NSI in the hospital concerned. Mandatory hepatitis B vaccination awareness programme in our hospital could be the reason for high HBV vaccination coverage among our HCWs.