{"id":575251,"date":"2026-07-30T10:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/575251\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T10:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:09:12","slug":"sharp-injuries-and-blood-borne-pathogens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/575251\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharp Injuries and Blood-Borne Pathogens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SHARP object injuries exposed healthcare workers and medical students to blood-borne pathogens across a 10-year hospital study.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers retrospectively examined 771 reported occupational accidents involving sharp objects at a 700-bed tertiary university hospital in Northeastern Greece between 2014 and 2023. The findings highlight persistent exposure concerns, particularly during blood collection and among younger healthcare personnel and medical students.<\/p>\n<p>Blood-Borne Pathogens Identified in Source Patients<\/p>\n<p>The source patient was identified in 710 cases, representing 92.1% of reported injuries. The remaining 61 incidents involved abandoned or improperly discarded sharp objects from unknown sources.<\/p>\n<p>Testing identified hepatitis B surface antigen in 31 source patients, hepatitis C antibodies in 25, HIV in four, and positive Treponema pallidum screening results in eight. Despite these exposures, follow-up monitoring found no occupational seroconversion for hepatitis C or HIV among healthcare workers or medical students.<\/p>\n<p>One healthcare worker and one medical student received <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emjreviews.com\/en-us\/amj\/microbiology-infectious-diseases\/news\/hiv-post-exposure-prophylaxis-guidance-updated\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HIV post-exposure prophylaxis<\/a> after exposure to source patients who tested positive for HIV.<\/p>\n<p>Blood Collection Drives Sharp Object Injuries<\/p>\n<p>Blood sampling or arterial blood gas collection accounted for 360 injuries, or 46.7% of all reported accidents. A further 127 incidents occurred after blood collection, while 75 happened during needle recapping.<\/p>\n<p>Hollow-bore needles caused 83% of documented injuries. Internal medicine departments accounted for 49.9% of incidents, followed by surgical departments at 33.5%.<\/p>\n<p>Physicians recorded the largest number of injuries among healthcare workers. However, final-year medical students consistently had the highest annual injury prevalence relative to the number of individuals in each professional group, reaching 39% in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Personnel aged 40 years or younger accounted for 74.2% of incidents. The researchers suggested that limited clinical experience, developing technical skills, and frequent performance of invasive procedures may contribute to the higher frequency among younger personnel and students.<\/p>\n<p>Prevention and Documentation Gaps Remain<\/p>\n<p>Most healthcare workers and medical students demonstrated immunity to hepatitis B. However, 44.5% of records did not document what immediate measures were taken following an injury.<\/p>\n<p>The findings support stronger clinical training, reliable reporting systems, safety-engineered devices, and standardized post-exposure procedures. Comprehensive injury registries may also help institutions identify vulnerable groups and evaluate occupational safety practices over time.<\/p>\n<p>The single-center design and reliance on reported incidents may limit generalizability, particularly because unreported needlestick injuries were not captured.<\/p>\n<p>Reference<br \/>Gkirtsou C et al. Occupational accidents caused by sharp objects among healthcare workers and medical students: a retrospective observational study. Cureus. 2026;18(6).<\/p>\n<p>Featured Image: CSJ STUDIO on Adobe Stock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SHARP object injuries exposed healthcare workers and medical students to blood-borne pathogens across a 10-year hospital study. Researchers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-575251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}