Author Identifier
Emmanuel O Adewuyi
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4533-0340
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Bulletin of the World Health Organization
Publisher
World Health Organization
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences / Centre for Precision Health
RAS ID
36134
Abstract
Objective
To estimate the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of occupational exposure to body fluids among health-care workers in Africa.
Methods
Embase®, PubMed® and CINAHL databases were systematically searched for studies published between January 2000 and August 2017 that reported the prevalence of occupational exposure to blood or other body fluids among health-care workers in Africa. The continent-wide prevalence of exposure was estimated using random-effects meta-analysis.
Findings
Of the 904 articles identified, 65 studies from 21 African countries were included. The estimated pooled lifetime and 12-month prevalence of occupational exposure to body fluids were 65.7% (95% confidence interval, CI: 59.7–71.6) and 48.0% (95% CI: 40.7–55.3), respectively. Exposure was largely due to percutaneous injury, which had an estimated 12-month prevalence of 36.0% (95% CI: 31.2–40.8). The pooled 12-month prevalence of occupational exposure among medical doctors (excluding surgeons), nurses (including midwives and nursing assistants) and laboratory staff (including laboratory technicians) was 46.6% (95% CI: 33.5–59.7), 44.6% (95% CI: 34.1–55.0) and 34.3% (95% CI: 21.8–46.7), respectively. The risk of exposure was higher among health-care workers with no training on infection prevention and those who worked more than 40 hours per week.
Conclusion
The evidence available suggests that almost one half of health-care workers in Africa were occupationally exposed to body fluids annually. However, a lack of data from some countries was a major limitation. National governments and health-care institutions across Africa should prioritize efforts to minimize occupational exposure among health-care workers.
DOI
10.2471/BLT.17.195735
Access Rights
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution IGO License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/legalcode), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In any reproduction of this article there should not be any suggestion that WHO or this article endorse any specific organization or products.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Comments
Auta, A., Adewuyi, E. O., Tor-Anyiin, A., Aziz, D., Ogbole, E., Ogbonna, B. O., & Adeloye, D. (2017). Health-care workers' occupational exposures to body fluids in 21 countries in Africa: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 95(12), 831-841.
https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.17.195735