What Should You Do After a Needlestick Injury?

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What to Do After a Needlestick Injury Claim?

Following a Needlestick Injury the accepted Medical Advice seems to be that You should:

• Encourage bleeding by washing with soap and running water;
• If you have blood and body fluids in your eyes then this needs to flushed out with copious amounts of cold water;
• If you have body fluids or blood on broken skin, then again encourage bleeding if possible and wash with soap under running water but experts say do not scrub!
• It is important to report any Needlestick injury due to the risk of HIV infection as well as a host of other viruses;
• Post-exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) should be offered immediately, however, if not this is still worth considering after 3 days exposure.

In most cases Truvada (tenofovir disoproxil 245 mg/emtricitabine 200 mg) is prescribed one tablet twice a day plus Kaletra (lopinavir 200 mg/ritonavir 50 mg) two tablets twice daily. There is also a risk of contracting hepatitis B and people at high risks should be advised to consider Hepatitis B Vaccine.

What Medical Investigations follow a Needlestick Injury?

If you have suffered a Needlestick injury then your doctor will take a blood sample to check for any contracted disease such as  HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C etc.

Once the results are known PEP and antibiotics are started where applicable to ensure as far as possible that the risk of contamination is kept to a minimum.

Accident Book to record the Needlestick Injury.

Clearly it is important to complete the Accident Book at the earliest opportunity and in sufficient detail so that the powers that be are able to consider all the circumstances and carefully consider how to prevent future incidents of the same kind.

Medical follow up is a “Must”.

Your treating doctor will hopefully ensure that there are adequate follow ups to monitor your recovery and take further blood tests. Depending on the individual circumstances you may need sick leave if medication is required and also possibly counselling help with mental health needs.