Risk of infection from needle reuse at a phlebotomy center.
OBJECTIVE
This study determined infection risk for HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) from needle reuse at a phlebotomy center that possibly exposed 3810 patients to infection.


METHODS
We used a model for the risk of infection per blood draw, supplemented by subsequent testing results from 1699 patients.


RESULTS
The highest risk of transmission was for HBV infection: 1.1 x 10(-6) in the best case and 1.2 x 10(-3) in the (unlikely) worst case. Subsequent testing yielded prevalence rates of 0.12%, 0.41%, and 0.88% for HIV, HBV, and HCV, respectively, lower than National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III prevalence estimates.


CONCLUSIONS
The infection risk was very low; few, if any, transmissions are likely to have occurred.
Porco
T C
TC
Community Health Epidemiology, Epidemiology and Effectiveness Research Unit, San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco, Calif., USA.
Aragón
T J
TJ
Fernyak
S E
SE
Cody
S H
SH
Vugia
D J
DJ
Katz
M H
MH
Bangsberg
D R
DR
D002140:California; D004866:Equipment Contamination; D017743:Equipment Reuse; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000635:transmission*; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000635:transmission*; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods*; D009339:Needles / Q000821:virology*; D018962:Phlebotomy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards; D011336:Probability; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data