Needle stick injuries: nurses at risk.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American health care workers suffer between 600,000 and 1 million needle sticks and other sharps injuries every year. Needle stick injuries are considered to be widely underreported. Eighty percent of blood contacts occur through needle sticks, making this the most common cause of health care work-related exposure to bloodborne pathogens. More than 20 pathogens can be transmitted through small amounts of blood. These include HIV, hepatitis B and C, other forms of hepatitis, syphilis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, varicellazoster, and malaria. Hepatitis B is the most common infectious disease transmitted through work-related exposure to blood. The CDC reports that 5,100 health care workers become infected with hepatitis B each year through job-related blood contact. There have been 54 documented cases of HIV seroconversions among U.S. health care workers resulting from occupational exposures. Needle stick injuries caused by hollow-bore needles accounted for 86 percent of all reported occupational HIV exposures. Nurses make up 24 percent of the cases of HIV infection among health care workers known or thought to have been infected on the job. Research shows that 83 percent of these injuries can be prevented--most through the use of needles with safety features or needleless systems. According to the American Hospital Association, one case of serious infection by bloodborne pathogen can result in expenditures of $1 million or more for testing, follow-up, time lost from work, and disability payments. The cost of follow-up for a high-risk exposure is almost $3,000 per needle stick injury, even when no infection occurs. Safe needle devices cost about 28 cents more than standard devices.