Equipment modifications to reduce needle sticks
Kempen, P.M.
New England Journal of Medicine 319(5): 308
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0028-4793 PMID: 3393188 DOI: 10.1056/nejm198808043190514Document Number: 355086
This letter makes common-sense suggestions about the design of drug containers and systems of drug delivery, which would, if adopted, substantially reduce the exposure of health-care workers to needlestick injury. As the correspondent points out this is a major cause of occupationally acquired hepatitis B infection and is of considerable concern with regard to HIV. The proposals underline the concepts of best current practice voiced both in the UK by the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens in their revised HIV guidelines, and by the Centers for Disease Control in the USA in their Universal Precautions (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1987, August supplement).