Needlestick injuries among health care workers of University of Alexandria hospitals

The aims of this cross-sectional study were to investigate the prevalence and circumstances of needlestick injury (NSI) among heath care workers at University of Alexandria teaching hospitals and to assess the effectiveness of the existing control measures and standard precautions. Data were obtained by anonymous, self-reporting questionnaire from 645 nurses, physicians and ancillary staff in 2007. Around two-thirds of workers (67.9%) had suffered at least 1 NSI in the last 12 months. High-risk patients (with history of HIV, hepatitis B virus or , hepatitis C virus infection or injecting drug use) were involved in 8.2% of injuries. On evaluating the effectiveness of existing control measures, significant protective factors against NSI were: using devices with safety features (OR 0.41), adherence to infection control guidelines (OR 0.42), training in injection safety (OR 0.14), comfortable room temperature (OR 0.32) and availability of a written protocol for prompt reporting (OR 0.37).