Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Abstract

Introduction: Sharp injuries are the main type of accident in health care institutions because health care workers are often exposed to the risk of injuring during their regular activities. These are most often needle-stick, scalpel or other sharp objects injuries which are often contaminated with blood or other body fluids of other persons. Such kind of injuries are important because of the exposure to blood and other body fluids, which represents a risk of intake of patogenous microorganisms from these objects into the body of the injured person. The most frequent diseases that occur as a consequence of injuring in health care institutions are viral hepatitis type B, C and HIV/AIDS. Aim of work: To investigate the frequency of injuries in health care institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Materials and Methods: This work is a cross sectional analytical study. This research is conducted using a questionnaire, made anonymously and voluntarily. Results are analysed according to age, sex structure, profession, work experience, type of object and type of exposure. Results: In our research 68% of examinees had some kind of injury at work. In 56% of cases it was a needle-stick injury. In 48% of cases blood was visible on the device. Some of them did not wear glows at the time of injuries. Examinees neglected the injury most often and over 75% of cases didn't notify anybody about the injury. The injury was rarely reported to a member of the Commission for Nosocomial infections. We need some additional researches and much more relevant data to create specific preventive measures for different working places in different health care settings. Our main goal is to reduce the risks of sharps injuries in health care professionals and to prevent blood-borne and other diseases. Keywords: Injuries; Health care institutions; Bosnia and Herzegovina

Biography

Prof. Zarema Obradović is an epidemiologist, currently working at the Epidemiology Department of Institute of Public Health Canton Sarajevo and as a Professor of Epidemiology at the Faculty for Health Studies, University of Sarajevo. After completing her studies at the Medical Faculty, University of Sarajevo, she completed the specialization in epidemiology in 1990. She completed the degree Master of medical sciences in 1997, and the degree Doctor of medical sciences in 2001. She is very active in several fields: public health, epidemiology, travel medicine and occupational health. She published over 170 papers on different topics and attended many international congresses and conferences all over the world (Bern, London, Paris, Athens, Rome, Ankara, Boston, Johannesbourg, Singapore, Nairobi etc.). She is a member of the comission for International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the coordinator for noncommunicable diseases (WHO) on national level.