Training Room 3

Bloodborne pathogens are micro-organisms that may be present in human blood. These micro-organisms can be transmitted to people who are exposed to contaminated blood or body fluids.

Although there are many bloodborne pathogens, you will focus on these four:

• human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
• hepatitis A (HPA)
• hepatitis B (HBV)
• hepatitis C (HCV)

Universal precautions are infection-control guidelines designed to protect workers from exposure to diseases spread by blood and certain body fluids. They are

• referred to as routine precautions or standard precautions

• developed by the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control, Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, among others

• applied in a variety of work settings where there is risk of contact (though they were originally designed for health care workers to minimize the risk of infection as a result of contact with patient blood or body fluids)

Universal precautions emphasize treating every patient as potentially infectious and include the following protective measures:

• personal protective equipment, such as gloves, masks, gowns, goggles, lab coats, shoe covers, glasses with side shields, and resuscitation bags
• engineering controls, which are methods designed to isolate or remove hazards from the workplace, including sharps disposal containers, laser scalpels, and laboratory fume hoods
• work practice controls, which are practical techniques used to reduce exposure by the way work is managed, including hand washing, handling of used needles and other disposable sharps and contaminated reusable sharps, and collecting and transporting fluids and tissues according to approved safe practices