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EXPOSURE INCIDENT FIRST AID
If you experience a needlestick or
other sharp injury or are exposed to blood or OPIM at work,
immediately follow these steps:
1. Wash needlesticks and cuts with
soap and water.
2. Flush splashes to the nose, mouth, or skin with water.
3. Irrigate eyes with clean water, saline, or sterile irrigants.
4. Report the incident to your supervisor.
5. Immediately seek medical treatment.
Post-exposure
Evaluation and Follow-up
Following a report of an exposure
incident (and after initial first aid) the employer must make
a confidential medical evaluation and follow-up must include:
1. The routes of exposure and how the exposure occurred.
2. Identification and documentation of the source individual,
unless identification is impossible or prohibited by law.
3. Arrangements to have the source individual tested in order
to determine if they are infected with HBV or HIV
4. The source individual's test results and information about
laws protecting confidentiality.
5. Testing the employee's blood (after obtaining consent)
as soon as possible after exposure incident.
Results of the testing must be made available to the exposed
employee, and the employee must be informed of all applicable
laws and regulations concerning disclosure of the identity
and infectious status of the individual.
When post-exposure vaccination for
HBV or the use of antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV infection
are medically indicated, they should be administered as soon
as possible, preferably within hours.
All medical records generated by an exposure incident must
be kept confidential and may not be disclosed or reported
without the employee's express written consent to any person
within or outside the workplace.
Evaluating
the Circumstances Surrounding an Exposure Incident
Employers must make certain that a responsible person reviews
the circumstances of all exposure incidents. The following
factors must be documented:
1. Engineering controls in use at the time of the incident.
2. Work practices followed.
3. A description of the device being used (syringe, scalpel,
etc.).
4. Protective equipment or clothing in use at the time of
the incident.
5. Location of the incident.
6. Procedure being performed at the time of the incident.
7. Employee's training.
8. All injuries from contaminated sharps must be recorded
in a sharps Injury log.
If necessary revisions to the Exposure
Control Plan are discovered in this process, the employer
must assure that the appropriate changes are made.
The Blood borne Pathogen Standard requires numerous individual
other procedures for professional evaluation, documentation
and follow-up of the circumstances surrounding an exposure
incident. (see the Appendix A).
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