In the 1980s, 17,000 healthcare workers used to contract and literally a planeload (300) of healthcare workers died one at a time essentially in silence every year from hepatitis B. The nickname for Hepatitis B during this era was the “healthcare workers” disease. Once there was a vaccine, most healthcare employers still refused to buy the vaccine due the cost (0). It wasn’t until after Labor Unions pushed for a Joint CDC/NIOSH/OSHA Alert in the late 1980s followed by a 5 year campaign resulting in a final OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standard (BBP) in 1991 – that required employers to provide the vaccine free of charge – that cases started to plummet. The incidence of occupational hepatitis B infections declined dramatically, from more than 17,000 cases in 1983, before the availability of the vaccine, to 400 in 1995 — a 95% decline and an amazing example of an OSHA success. The protection of healthcare workers from exposures to bloodborne pathogens, a life-threatening occupational risk in healthcare settings, was tragically neglected in the pre-AIDS era. Such exposures, particularly to hepatitis B, long exacted a deadly toll among healthcare workers worldwide. But it was not until the global AIDS epidemic captured the attention of the healthcare community that efforts to reduce this grave occupational risk were set in motion. The first case of needlestick-transmitted HIV was reported in the Lancet in 1984, alerting the healthcare community to this new threat. In 1987, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documented six cases of occupationally acquired HIV infection in the U.S., a report that sent shock waves through the healthcare community. Pressure was applied to government agencies to take protective action, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) a large healthcare worker union and others formally petitioned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor with authority over employers, to set new standard requiring healthcare employers to upgrade protective measures provided to employees. After several years of hearings and public comment, and intense congressional pressure, the standard was promulgated in 1991. To this day, the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard (BPP) remains the principal authority protecting U.S. HCWs from bloodborne pathogens. The BBP included provisions requiring employers to establish exposure prevention programs, including the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, fluid-resistant gowns, protective eyewear, masks and other barrier garments to reduce contact with blood and contaminated body fluids; (2) safer handling and disposal of sharp medical devices; (3) hepatitis B vaccine offered at no cost to employees; (4) use of puncture-resistant sharps containers, placed as close as possible to the point-of-use; and (5) annual training of all at-risk workers in the protective measures included in the guidelines.
For more information, go to the OSHA website on Bloodborne Pathogens and Needlestick Prevention at http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/bloodbornepathogens/index.html. This is clipped from the 1992 OSHA video, As It Should Be Done: Workplace Precautions Against Bloodborne Pathogens. 24 minute video explains how workers can protect themselves against occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens, such as Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). This program is targeted primarily to health care workers and related professionals. The entire video is available on the OSHA website and at the Internet Archive.
Video Rating: / 5
