Prevalence and Knowledge of Needle Stick Injury among the Health Care Workers in a Tertiary Care Hospital Solan H.P.

NSI is a major occupational health and safety issue faced by health-care professionals globally. National instate for occupational safety and health define NSIs as “injuries caused by needles such as hypodermic blood collection needles, IV styles and needles used to connect part of IV delivery system” (4).HCW are exposed to NSI from unsafe practices such as recapping of needles, manipulating used needles, such as bending, breaking or cutting hypodermic needles or passing of needles from one workers to another. It is revealed that the most common clinical activity to cause NSI was blood withdrawal, followed by suturing and vaccinations (5) Health care professionals are most negligent as far as their own health is concerned. Health care workers incur 2 million needle stick injuries (NSIs) per year as Needle stick injuries present the single greatest occupational hazard to medical personnel.(6) While as many as twenty blood borne pathogens can be transmitted through accidental needle sticks, the potentially life threatening are Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV).(7) The World Health Organization estimates the global burden of International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 8 (2017) pp. 2486-2492 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com