Dragan Mijakoski1, Jovanka Karadzinska-Bislimovska1,
Elisaveta Stikova2, Saso Stoleski1
1Institute for Occupational Health of Republic of Macedonia,
WHO CC, GA2LEN CC, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia; 2Institute
of Public Health of Republic of Macedonia, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Background: Nurses are at risk for occupational exposure to
blood-borne pathogens (BBP), including hepatitis B (HBV), and hepatitis C
virus (HCV). Occupational exposure to BBP among nurses includes percutaneous
injuries with sharp objects or contacts of mucous membranes or nonintact
skin with blood, tissues, or other potentially infectious body fluids.
Objective: To determine frequency of occupational sharp injuries, and
to evaluate association between occupational sharp injuries and occurrence
of biological markers of HBV and HCV infection in nurses.
Method: We performed cross-sectional study including 54 nurses (50
females, 4 males; aged 30-61 years) (Group I) engaged in workplace tasks
characterized by possibility for occupational exposure to BBP including HBV
and HCV. Additionally, 32 workers (25 females, 7 males; aged 21-64 years)
(Group II) from health care system with workplace tasks which don’t include
possibility for occupational exposure to HBV and HCV were studied.
Evaluation of examined subjects included completion of questionnaire, and
laboratory tests for biological markers of viral infection (HBsAg,
Anti-HBc-Ab, Anti-HCV-Ab).
Results: Data showed that needle-stick injuries (81.5%) were
significantly more frequent than instrument injuries (61.1%) in examined
nurses. Positive Anti-HBc-Ab were more frequently detected in nurses than in
subjects from Group II with statistically significant difference (25.9% vs.
6.3%; P<0.05). Positive Anti-HBc-Ab status was registered only among nurses
with percutaneous injuries at work.
Conclusion: Determination of frequency of percutaneous injuries at
work with sharp objects should be one of the key elements in the process of
identification of agents and dangers at the specific workplace - nurse.
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Citation: Mijakoski D, Karadzinska-Bislimovska J, Stikova E, Stoleski
S. Occupational Sharp Injuries and Biological Markers of Hepatitis B and
Hepatitis C Viral Infection in Nurses. Maced J Med Sci. 2011 Dec 15;
4(4):417-427. http://dx.doi.org/10.3889/MJMS.1957-5773.2011.0205.
Key words: needlestick injuries; biological markers; hepatitis B
virus; hepatitis C virus; nurses.
Correspondence: Dr. Dragan Mijakoski. Institute of Occupational
Health, Allergy Center, Vasil Gjorgov 20/37, Skopje 1000, Macedonia. E-Mail:
dmijakoski@yahoo.com
Received: 21-Sep-2011; Revised: 10-Nov-2011; Accepted: 11-Nov-2011; Online
first: 28-Nov-2011
Copyright: © 2011 Mijakoski D. This is an open access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing
interests exist.
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