Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs
Open Access

Research Article

Occupational Risk Factors Associated with Needle-Stick Injury among Healthcare Workers in Hawassa City, Southern Ethiopia

¹Hawassa University, College of Health Sciences, Ethiopia

²Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation (CERAR), University of South Australia, Australia

*Corresponding Author:

Hunachew Beyene
Hawassa University, College of Health Sciences, Ethopia
Tel: 251468209278
E-mail: hunachew@gmail.com

Received date: November 30, 2013; Accepted date: April 05, 2014; Published date: April 12, 2014

Citation: Beyene H, Desalegn Yirsaw B (2014) Occupational Risk Factors Associated with Needle-Stick Injury among Healthcare Workers in Hawassa City, Southern Ethiopia. Occup Med Health Aff 2:156. doi: 10.4172/2329-6879.1000156

Copyright: © 2014 Beyene H, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: Accidental occupational injuries to health care workers continue to have a significant problem in healthcare systems owing to the associated risk of acquiring infections such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency viruses. Objective: The study examined the prevalence and health risk factors associated with needle stick injury in Hawassa City, Southern Ethiopia. Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Hawassa City from October to January 2010. Result: Exposure to unsafe body fluids was common among healthcare workers in Hawassa City. The needle stick injury rate in the study area was 35.8%. Number of clinical procedures performed per day (p value=0.04) and the type of heath institution (p value=0.011) were significantly associated with the daily body fluids exposure. Lack of adequate personal protective equipment and negligence in personal safety were common among study participants. Conclusion: High prevalence of infections among patients in hospitals associated with high rates of occupational exposure to blood may markedly put healthcare workers at risk of infections. Therefore, infection control programs through adherence to standard precautions are critically required.

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