ABSTRACT
Needle prick and sharps injuries (NP/SI) are common among health care workers (HCWs). The
NP is the commonest route by which health care providers acquire blood born diseases from
patients. PHC workers get exposed to accidental NP/SI during their routine hospital activities.
Abuse of injection, lack of occupational health services, and lack of sharps bins expose HCWs to
NP/SI, while awareness and compliance to protective measures prevent NP/SI and related
consequences. However lack of data on NP/SI in this area, initiated this research to provide data
for Tangaza LGA.
To determine the prevalence and circumstances of NP/SI among PHC workers in Tangaza LGA,
Sokoto State.
It was a cross sectional descriptive study. Subjects were PHC workers who are most likely to be
exposed to used needles and other sharp instruments.
The instrument of the study was a self administered questionnaire and analysis was done using
SPSS version 15.0 soft ware. Up to 75 4% of HCWs were aware of NP/SI hazards. There was a relationship between
categories of HCWs and awareness of NP/SI hazards (p<0.05). About 76.1% and 73.9% of
HCWs identified HIV and HBV to be associated with NP/SI respectively.
Majority, 81.7% of HCWs administered injections and 61.8% of these recapped needles.
More than half, 56.1% of the respondents incurred NP injuries with needle recapping accounting
for 67. 4% of all the prick injuries. In this study NP are not related to cadre of HCWs (p>0.05).
Use of protective measures were not practiced by majority HCWs. Only, 16.4% used gloves all
the time, post exposure HBV immunization was 12.4% and HIV PEP had not been attempted by
any of the respondents.
In conclusion the study showed clearly that the population of primary health care workers are at
risk of needle prick/sharps injures and related hazards, and only very few of them adhere to
preventive or protective measures despite high level of awareness of the associated hazards.
Training on preventive measures must be recommended as well as avoidance of needle
recapping, reduction in over use of injection in treatment, provision of adequate sharps and none
sharps disposal bins and reporting NP/SI.