title: Incidence of occupational exposures in a tertiary health care center.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Occupational exposure to Hepatitis B virus (HBV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a cause of concern to all health care workers (HCWs), especially those, in hospitals. Among the HCWs, nurses, interns, technicians, resident doctors and housekeeping staff have the highest incidence of occupational exposure.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the cases of needle stick injuries and other exposures to patient's blood or body fluids among health care workers.
  
  
  METHODS
  A detailed account of the exposure is documented which includes incidence of needle stick injuries (NSI) and implementation of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) as per the hospital guidelines. We report a two-year continuing surveillance study where 255 health care workers (HCWs) were included. PEP was given to HCWs sustaining NSI or exposures to blood and body fluids when the source is known sero-positive or even unknown where the risk of transmission is high. Follow-up of these HCW's was done after three and six months of exposure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 255 HCWs, 59 sustained needle stick injuries and two were exposed to splashes. 31 of the NSI were from known sources and 28 from unknown sources. From known sources, thirteen were seropositive; seven for HIV, three for HCV and three for HBV. Nineteen of them sustained needle stick during needle re-capping, six of them during clean up, six of them while discarding into the container, 17 during administration of injection, eight of them during suturing, two occurred in restless patient, 17 during needle disposal.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  So far, no case of sero-conversion as a result of needle stick injuries was reported at our center.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, A. J. Institute of Medical Sciences, Kuntikan, Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Amrita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shriyan
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roche
authors.lastname: Annamma