Sir, Accidental needle stick and sharp object injuries carry major risk factors for blood-borne infections amongst health workers.[1,2] The blood-borne infections that are mostly contracted through occupational hazards are Hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).[3] The risk of transmission of these diseases following percutaneous exposure among h...

Illegal dumping of contaminated medical waste occurs commonly in South Africa. There is little information on the management and outcome of the children exposed to and injured by medical waste. On 15 September 1999, 54 children where involved in a mass exposure incident. 44 presented the same evening and 10 following day. Used needles and syringes were discarded on their soccer field. Children ...

background & aims of the study: the sharp injuries (sis) are a percutaneous piercing wound caused by a sharp instrument. needle sticks and sharp injuries (nssis) can increase the incidence of cases of hepatitis b, c and hiv. the purpose of this study was to investigation of the relative frequency of nssis in healthcare workers (hcws) in ahvaz, iran (razi hospital) over 3-year period (2011–2013)...

Larvae of the insect Galleria mellonella are increasingly being used for studying pathogenic microbes and their virulence mechanisms, and as a rapid model for screening novel antimicrobial agents. The larvae (waxworms) are most frequently infected by injection of pathogenic organisms into the haemocoel through the insect's prolegs. The mostly widely used method for restraining the waxworms for ...

OBJECTIVE The study aimed at determining the prevalence of incident occupational exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM) among healthcare personnel (HCP) during 2010 and at evaluating the factors associated with these incidents. SUBJECTS AND METHODS An epidemiological, retrospective, record-based study was conducted. All self-reported incidents of occupational expo...