According to CDC, since the medical history and examination of patients cannot identify all those with HIV, healthcare workers should use universal precautions all the time. The universal blood and body precautions stipulate the following. All healthcare workers ought to routinely use barriers to prevent any body contact with body fluids of the patient. In this case, medical practitioners should use gloves when touching blood, non-intact skin, mucous membranes, and items or surfaces soiled with blood or any other body fluid. Besides, the healthcare workers should wear masks, face shields and gowns when handling procedures that produce blood droplets or any other body fluids.
If the hands and skin of the workers come into contact with blood, the person should immediately and thoroughly wash the area and take other precautions depending on the nature of risks i.e. whether the medical practitioner had open wounds or the patient reactive. One should change gloves immediately after a tear and wear another if the procedure allows i.e. there is enough time to change. The healthcare worker should use mouthpieces or resuscitation bags other than mouth to mouth resuscitation. Saliva may not transmit HIV, but any openings in the mouth of the patient possess risks of contracting HIV.
Moreover, medical practitioners should take precautions to ensure that needles, scalpels, and other devices do not injure them either during use, cleaning, and disposal. In this respect, health care workers should not bend or purposely break used needles and other sharp objects, but should keep them in puncture resistance boxes/containers that should be as close as practical to the area of the utilization of the sharp instruments. In case that the health care workers come into contact with infected mucous or blood or get a cut or a prick from a used needle, they can use Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) (WHO, 5). Besides all the above, healthcare institutions should train workers in infection control, provide PEP, and advocate for the development and use of devices engineered to minimize injuries especially for workers who often come into contact with potentially HIV-infected blood (CDC).
Works cited
Centers for Disease Control. "Occupational HIV Transmission and Prevention Among Health Care Workers." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015. Web. 06 Mar. 2016. <http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/workplace/occupational.html>.
Centers for Disease Control. Recommendations for prevention of HIV transmission in health- care settings. MMWR 2001;36. Accessed on March 7, 2016 from <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00023587.htm>
WHO. Prevention of HIV Transmission in Health Care Settings. May 7, 2007. PDF file. Accessed from < http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/toolkits/HIV%20transmission%20in%20health%20care%20s etttings.pdf>
