Preventing Needlestick Injuries in Health Care Settings

This Alert provides current scientific information about the risk of needlestick injury and the transmission of bloodborne pathogens to health care workers. The document focuses on needlestick injuries as a key element in a broader effort to prevent all sharps-related injuries and associated bloodborne infections. The document describes five cases of health care workers with needlestick-related infections and presents intervention strategies for reducing these risks. Because many needleless devices and safer needle devices have been recently introduced and the field is rapidly evolving, the Alert briefly describes an approach for evaluating these devices.

A copy of this communication product is available in CDC Stacks.