As a healthcare worker, there’s a high possibility that you might touch a lot of surfaces, many of which might be contaminated as you go through your daily routine. That makes you a care provider to be at risk of occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens.
The BBP is pathogenic micro-organisms that are found in infected human blood, including certain body fluids that can lead to disease in humans.
The chance of its transmission within the healthcare setting is determined by three important factors:
the nature and frequency of exposure to blood or body fluids;
the risk of transmission of infection after a single exposure to the pathogen; and
the prevalence of infected and susceptible patients and healthcare workers.
The common four important bloodborne viruses are the human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis b, hepatitis C, and cytomegalovirus. Patients can be infected with hepatitis B or C or HIV as a result of exposure to the blood of infected health professionals, especially surgeons.
You can be exposed to a bloodborne pathogen directly by touching an infected person or their secretions. Or you can be indirectly exposed to something that priorly has been contaminated by the infected person.
Direct Transmission
The risk of infection for health workers depends on the preponderance of disease in the patient population and the nature and frequency of exposures. Occupational exposures to blood can result from percutaneous injury (needle-stick or another sharp injury), mucocutaneous injury (splash of blood or other body fluids in the eyes, nose, or mouth), or body contact with non-intact skin.
The most common form of occupational transmission to blood and the most likely to result in infection is needle-stick injury. The most common causes of needle-stick injury are two-handed recapping and the unsafe collection and disposal of sharp waste.
Pathogens can be directly transmissible when microorganisms are transferred from one infected person to another person without any need for a middle object or person. For instance, blood or other blood-containing body fluids from a patient directly enters a caregiver’s body through contact with a mucous membrane or breaks (i.e., cuts, abrasions) in the skin.
When there’s ungloved contact with a patient’s skin, a caregiver might get infected upon contact with a patient with a disease.
Health workers who work in areas of operations, delivery, and emergency rooms, laboratories have a higher risk of exposure. Cleaners, waste collectors, and others whose duties involve handling blood-contaminated items are also at risk. The professionals at bloodbornepathogenstraining.com/ published new guidelines for health workers to become more conscious and safe. The mere fact that you work in a health care facility means you should always be aware that there’s a possibility of exposure to blood pathogens. If you know what’s at stake, you can take precautions.
Indirect Transmission
Pathogens are easily transmitted across different mediums, and the means by which it is done varies. After a single exposure, they can pass through three principal routes: by contact, little droplets, and via the air we breadth.
Droplets are generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks or during procedures (such as suctioning, endotracheal intubation, cough induction by chest physiotherapy, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation). If this occurs when their caretaker isn’t well suited, they risk being infected from the droplets.
Airborne transmission occurs by the release of small airborne particles in the respirable size range comprising contagious agents that remain a lot in the air over time and distance.
Unhygienic Equipment
Pathogens can be transmitted indirectly when there is no proper hygiene available. For example, the hands of healthcare personnel may transmit pathogens after touching an infected body on one patient.
Patient-care equipment like electronic thermometers, glucose monitoring devices may also carry pathogens if they’ve been in constant use without being cleaned. Sometimes, contaminated blood or body fluids can be shared among patients unconsciously when it’s not taken care of properly.
Unhealthy Tissues Or Organs
The susceptible worker is one who risks becoming infected through inhaling microorganisms carried and dispersed over long distances by air currents. These individuals just need to be around unfixed body organs. It doesn’t even need to be from intact skin, and the tissue can be dead humans’. You’d have no challenge perusing the city if the tissues have been fixed.
Healthcare workers are at risk of human blood and body fluids. You have to understand that surfaces can be contaminated, and pathogens may not be visible. This article suggests the need for better safety devices/products and work practices to reduce suture-related injuries.