Assessment of inadvertent exposure to blood and body fluids among health care personnel: A cross-sectional study at pre-tertiary levels of health care in southern Nigeria

On a daily basis, Health care personnel (HCP) are inadvertently at significant risk of infections with blood-borne pathogens and these infections have been known to pose a substantial financial burden for follow-up testing, treatment and staff replacement. This situation is worse in developing countries like ours where there issub-optimal infection control practices like lack of equipment, training and compliance with standard precautions. Objectives: To assess HCP inadvertent exposure to blood and body fluids. Also, this study is met to focus on patterns of mucocutaneous and percutaneous exposures to BBFs among HCP at the primary and secondary level of health care. Methods: The cross- sectional study was conducted amongst 291 Health care personnel working in thirty primary health care and three secondary health care facilities in a Southern state of  Nigeria. Results: One hundred and fifty five (53.3%) and one hundred and seventy eight (61.2%) of the respondents had sharps injuries and exposure to blood and body fluid splashes. (BBFs). Comparatively, more (50.4%) of the health care workers in the Primary health care (PHC) centres had a sharp injury compared to the secondary health care (SHC) workers, however, more (62.8%) of the SHC workers had splash exposure to Blood and body fluids (BBFs) compared to the PHC. Furthermore, the major circumstances of unintentional exposure to blood and body fluids were: Recapping/manipulation of needles and sudden movement of a patient during hospital care, they account for 30.4% and 24.6% circumstances for exposures respectively. This study further reveals that job category, work experience and sex of the respondents were significantly associated with the occurrence of accidental exposure to BBFs. Conclusion: In this study, health care workers at the Primary and Secondary health care setting had substantial exposure to blood and body fluids. This significant exposure to BBFs is quite an alarming situation bearing in mind the health impact and financial loss resulting from treatment of blood borne infections. Therefore, there is a need for all health authorities to organize regular standard precautions training for all their health care workers; this training must be focused on injection safety practices and use of personal protective equipment.