title: Blood and body fluid exposure related knowledge, attitude and practices of hospital based health care providers in United arab emirates.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare providers related to occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens were assessed in a tertiary-care hospital in Middle East.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was undertaken using a self-administered questionnaire based on 3 paired (infectivity known vs. not known-suspected) case studies. Only 17 out of 230 respondents had an exposure in the 12 months prior to the survey and of these, only 2 had complied fully with the hospital's exposure reporting policy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the paired case studies, the theoretical responses of participating health professionals showed a greater preference for initiating self-directed treatment with antivirals or immunisation rather than complying with the hospital protocol, when the patient was known to be infected. The differences in practice when exposed to a patient with suspected blood pathogens compared to patient known to be infected was statistically significant (p < 0.001) in all 3 paired cases. Failure to test an infected patient's blood meant that an adequate risk assessment and appropriate secondary prevention could not be performed, and reflected the unwillingness to report the occupational exposure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Therefore, the study demonstrated that healthcare providers opted to treat themselves when exposed to patient with infectious disease, rather than comply with the hospital reporting and assessment protocol.
authors.affiliation: Occupational and Aviation Medicine, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Moazzam Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Zaidi
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Griffiths
authors.forename: Salem A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Beshyah
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: Mukarram A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Zaidi