Introduction / objectives Although hand hygiene (HH) is known to be the single most important factor to reduce healthcare acquired infections, studies of HH compliance in health care workers (HCWs) has been reported to be between 3050%. Physician HH compliance is consistently lower than other HCWs. Whether the physician group is homogeneous with regard to HH compliance is uncertain. This study ...

Young women in South Africa experience high HIV and unintended pregnancy rates. Health care workers' (HCWs') opinions about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues impact young women's ability to access SRH services. We explored HCW opinions through interviews with a purposive sample of 29 HCWs in three primary health clinics in Soweto, South Africa and examined service availability through...

BACKGROUND Healthcare workers (HCWs) are encouraged to get vaccinated during influenza pandemics to reduce their own, and patients', risk of infection, and to encourage their patients to get immunised. Despite extensive research on HCWs' receipt of vaccination, little is known about how HCWs articulate pandemic influenza vaccination advice to patients. AIMS To explore HCWs' uptake of the A/H1...

Health care workers (HCWs) are at a high risk of occupational blood-borne infections, which may be increased in low and middle income countries by low adherence to Universal Precautions (UP). A baseline survey of Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceived adherence (KAP) was executed to design evidence-based tailor made interventions. A cross-sectional, descriptive study using self-administered questio...

An increased incidence of pertussis has been observed recently in adults, and healthcare workers (HCWs) are considered a risk group for transmission to infants. Prevalence of recent pertussis infection was assessed in HCWs from a paediatric department of a tertiary care hospital in Brazil. Serum pertussis toxin IgG antibodies were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Of 388 HCWs inclu...

background: the risk for transmission of blood-borne viruses (bbvs) such as human immunodeficiency virus (hiv), hepatitis b virus (hbv) and hepatitis c virus (hcv) due to occupational exposure is a major concern in the health care setting. m aterials and methods: this study among 337 health care workers (hcws) accidentally exposed to bbvs was carried out from january 2009 to march 2015. the dat...

BACKGROUND The hand hygiene practices of health care workers (HCWs) have long been the main vector for nosocomial infection in hospitals. The purpose of this study was to examine influences on risk judgment from the individual differences in knowledge levels and health beliefs among US HCWs. METHODS Knowledge levels were assessed by questions taken from published questionnaires. The health lo...

1. Duty of Care—Obligations of the healthcare profession One debatable issue that concerns the healthcare workers (HCWs) would be their “duty of care” or simply, their “obligation to treat patients” or “provide care” during an infectious disease outbreak despite the risk of infection.6-9 There is a general perception that HCWs should adhere to their duty of care and provide treatment to patient...

BACKGROUND The well-documented shortages of health care workers (HCWs) in sub-Saharan Africa are further intensified by the increased human resource needs of expanding HIV treatment programs. Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and a sense of low personal accomplishment (PA). HCWs' burnout can negatively impact the delivery of health services. Our main ob...

BACKGROUND Occupational exposure to blood and body fluids is a serious concern for health care workers, and presents a major risk for the transmission of infections such as HIV and hepatitis viruses. The objective of this study was to investigate occupational exposures and behavior of health care workers (HCWs) in eastern Ethiopia. METHODS We surveyed 475 HCWs working in 10 hospitals and 20 h...