Healthcare workers have greatest pathogen exposure

By Will Boggs, MD

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Although numerous occupations come with a risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens, the rates are highest for healthcare workers, according to a report in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

"Bloodborne pathogen exposure is a significant occupational safety and health problem in U.S. healthcare settings," Dr. Guang X. Chen from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, West Virginia told Reuters Health. "It is preventable."

Dr. Chen and Dr. E. Lynn Jenkins used data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System to investigate the magnitude and distribution of potential bloodborne pathogen exposures across all industries and occupations in the United States.

Workers employed in hospitals accounted for three quarters of the more than 234,000 exposures between 1998 and 2000, the authors report, but workers from eight other industries also had a substantial number of cases. These included nursing homes; public order, safety and justice systems; health services other than hospitals; residential care facilities without nurses; dentist offices, urban transit; physician offices; and elementary and secondary schools.

Registered nurses had 36 percent of all exposures, the results indicate, and nine other occupations, including police, public services, janitors, and other occupations, had a significant number of exposures.

The largest increase in exposures during this period was among physicians (101 percent) and laboratory technicians or technologists (31 percent), the researchers note, whereas exposure rates remained relatively stable for registered nurses.

"This surveillance study is but a first step in further understanding the complex issues surrounding workplace bloodborne pathogen exposure," the authors conclude.

Chen recommended two resources: http://www.cdc.gov/sharpssafety/ and http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/2000-108.html.

SOURCE: American Journal of Industrial Medicine, March 2007.