NEEDLE STICK INJURY AND POST EXPOSURE PROPHYLAXIS FOR HIV AND HBV – A KAP STUDY AMONG HEALTH CARE WORKERS

Abstract

Needle stick injuries (NSI) are occupational injuries in Health Care Workers (HCWs) on using sharps. Though there are more than 20 pathogens transmitted through NSI, human immune deciency virus (HIV), hepatitis B & C virus (HBV&HCV)[1] are of signicance due to grave complications and minimum available preventive measures. According to WHO, nearly 40% of HBV and 2.5% of HIV infections among HCWs is attributed to NSI[2]. The occurrence of NSI can be reduced if Standard Work Precautions are strictly adhered by all HCWs at all times and also by taking Post Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV & HBV within the golden period of 2 hour. This study is done to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of HCWs of various categories on NSI and PEP. A Self structured questionnaire was administered to the study population (n=307) including Post graduates, Interns, Staff nurses, Nursing students , Lab technicians, Lab technical students. There was 10 questions under three sections.1) KNOWLEDGE 2) ATTITUDE 3) PRACTICE . This study revealed that knowledge regarding transmission of all three viruses (HIV,HBV,HCV) was less among paramedics compared to medicos, but the practice of HBV vaccination is the same. 53.1% of HCWs had NSI in our study. Majority incurred NSI during recapping needles. Attitude of HCW after being exposed to report NSI is very low (30.7%). Though 37.5% of the respondents not aware of golden hour of PEP, most of them aware of initiating PEP within 72 hours of exposure . Applying disinfectants/pressure over exposed area (38.9%) & recapping (31.6%) is still prevalent among study population. And 20 % of the HCWs were not vaccinated against Hepatitis B yet.