ArticleAfrican journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence2019
Cross-sectional survey on occupational needle stick injuries amongst prehospital emergency medical service personnel in Johannesburg.
Article in African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Occupational Infection Prevention Among Nurses and Laboratory Technicians Amidst Multiple Health Emergencies in Outbreak-Prone Country, D.R. Congo.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2026Article
- Needle stick injuries among emergency medical services personnel: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Prevalence and associated factors of needle stick and sharp injuries among nurses: A cross-sectional study.SAGE open medicine · 2024Article
- Prevalence and determinants of occupational injuries among emergency medical technicians in Northern Ghana.PloS one · 2023Article
- Needlestick and sharps' injury in healthcare students: Prevalence, knowledge, attitude and practice.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2022Article
- Occupational blood and body fluid exposure among emergency medical service providers in the eThekwini metropole of South Africa.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2022Article
- Healthcare practitioners and students' PEP knowledge, attitude and adherence in Southern Africa.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2022Article
- Frequency of Occupational Bloodborne Infections and Sharps Injuries among Polish Paramedics from Selected Ambulance Stations.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionPrehospital personnel are exposed to challenging situations that place them at increased risk of sustaining a needle stick injury (NSI). Blood borne infections such as HIV and Hepatitis B or C may be transmitted from a NSI. Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest number of people living with HIV globally. There is no data pertaining to NSI among Emergency Medical Service (EMS) personnel in South Africa. This study aimed to investigate the cumulative incidence, knowledge, attitudes and practices pertaining to NSIs amongst a select group of prehospital personnel in Johannesburg.
methodsThis was a prospective, questionnaire based, cross-sectional survey of personnel employed at three EMS service providers in Johannesburg.
resultsOf the 240 subjects that participated in the study, there was a total of 93 NSIs amongst 63 (26.3%) subjects. Of these, 41 (65.1%) had sustained one previous NSI, 16 (25.4%) had two NSIs, 5 (7.9%) had three NSIs and one (1.6%) had five NSIs. Almost two-thirds (n = 60; 64.5%) of NSIs were sustained during intravenous line insertion. Most of the study subjects were male (n = 145, 60.4%), between the age of 25-29 years (n = 67, 27.9%), had a BLS qualification as the highest level of training (n = 89, 37.1%), had >10 years of EMS experience (n = 69; 28.8%) and were up to date with their Hepatitis B vaccination at the time of the study. HIV post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) was initiated in 82 (88.2%) out of the 93 NSI incidents. However, the recommended 28-day course of therapy was only completed in 68 (82.9%) out of the 82 cases where PEP was initiated.
conclusionPrehospital personnel are at risk of sustaining a NSI. There is a need to promote awareness with regards to the risks, preventive measures, awareness of PEP protocols and the timely initiation and completion of HIV PEP amongst EMS personnel in Johannesburg.
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