Occupational injury involving exposure to biological fluids: a portrait of reality

Abstract

Objective: to characterize occupational accidents with exposure to biological material reported in thereferral services in the micro region of Votuporanga, SP, Brazil between 2001 and 2005. Material andMethod: this is a descriptive survey, retrospective documentary survey of occupational accidents withexposure to biological material obtained from 273 report forms from the accident report system forwarded to the database of the Serviço de Vigilância Epidemiológica da Secretaria Municipal de Saúde deVotuporanga, SP and to the Direção Regional de Saúde XXII (DIRXXII) de São José do Rio Preto, SP,Brazil. Results: of the 273 reported accidents, 78.4% occurred with female workers and 69.6% wereindividuals between 20 and 40 years of age. Votuporanga was the city with the most reported accidents(89.0%) and nursing auxiliaries were the most exposed professionals (48.4%). In 99.6% of cases, carewas provided within 72 hours. Percutaneous injury was the most frequent (86.8%), blood was the biological material with which there was the most contact (98.5%), and lumen needles accounted for 72.1%of the accidents. A total of 87.5% of the victims were vaccinated against Hepatitis B and 67.0% had notbeen tested for anti-HBs. The serological status against HIV of the source patient was unknown in 16.1%of the reports and in 78,8% was known for HBV. Hepatitis C serological tests for 78.8% of patient-sourcewere verified, of which 3.3% tested positive, 25.9% whose source was unknown did not follow-up. Conclusions: data indicate the need to develop a local intervention plan with the consent of the community,which is undoubtedly co-responsible for proposals of change.