UNIVERSAL SAFETY PRECAUTIONS

UNIVERSAL SAFETY PRECAUTIONS

Universal Safety Precautions are infection control guidelines designed to protect workers from exposure to diseases spread by blood & certain body fluids. It has been developed by the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada& U.S. Centres for Disease Control to prevent the transmission of blood borne pathogens from the patient’s blood & body fluids to the people working in Health care centre. They must assume the patients to be suffering from infectious diseases such as AIDS, Hepatitis B & other blood borne diseases.

 THE VARIOUS PRECAUTIONS TO BE TAKEN


1. Personal Protective Equipment -Includes gloves, lab coats, gowns, shoe covers, goggles, & glasses with side shields, masks & resuscitation bags. It is to prevent the blood & body fluids of patients from reaching the worker’s skin & mucous membrane or personal clothing.
2. Engineering Controls:-
It is to remove hazards from workplace such as sharp disposal containers, laser scalpels, & ventilation including the use of ventilated biological cabinets.
3. Work Practice Control:-
It is the technique employed to reduce the likelihood of exposure by changing the way a task is performed. Eg :- hand washing, handling of used needles, contaminated reusable sharps and collecting & transport of fluids & tissues according to approved safe practices.
 WHERE TO BE USED ??

When the worker is in contact with
 Blood & other body fluids such as:-
 Semen
 Vaginal secretions
 Synovial fluid
 Cerebrospinal fluid
 Pleural fluid
 Peritoneal fluid
 Pericardial fluid
 Amniotic fluid
It must also be applied to body fluids where it is difficult to identify the fluid or when it is mixed with blood.

 WHERE NEED NOT BE USED ??

 Feces
 Nasal secretions
 Sputum
 Sweat
 Tears
 Urine
 Vomitus
 Saliva (not when mixed with blood)
Note - You DO NOT need to know HIV or Hepatitis B status of your patients to observe Universal Safety Precautions!