Intravenous Injection

In the past decade alone, dozens of outbreaks of hepatitis B and hepatitis C have occurred in health care settings outside of hospitals, resulting in the exposure of thousands of patients to potentially deadly viral diseases. The culprit? Failure by health care providers to follow basic infection prevention and control procedures. In fact, adherence to safe injection practices can actually prevent outbreaks and spread of disease. These measures, now part of standard precautions, are recommendations by the CDC to ensure that patients receive injections in a safe manner. When performed properly, safe injection practices reduce the risk to patients and health care workers of transmitting blood-borne pathogens,

such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus and HIV, as well as bacterial and fungal infections. Transmission can occur during the administration of anesthetics in surgical, pain management and diagnostic procedures, whenever flushing IV lines or catheters, during the administration of other IV medications such as chemotherapy and alternative medicines, or the administration of intramuscular vaccines. The spread of blood-borne infections from unsafe injection practices is an example of indirect contact transmission. Indirect transmission begins with an infectious patient or source and involves the transfer of an infectious agent through a contaminated intermediate object to a susceptible patient.

Transfer of these infectious agents through indirect contact transmission can occur from the hands of health care professionals, patient care devices such as glucometers, instruments such as endoscopes that are not adequately reprocessed, and from injection equipment such as a syringe, needle or medication vial. Unsafe practices that have contributed to the transmission of pathogens and should never occur include using the same syringe to administer medication to more than one patient, even if the needle was changed, using the same needle to administer medication to more than one patient, contaminating a medication vial by accessing the vial with a syringe already used to administer medication to a patient,

using a common bag of saline or other IV fluid for more than one patient, accessing the bag with a syringe already used to flush an IV or catheter, and leaving an IV set in place for dispensing fluid to multiple patients. Another possible breach in infection prevention is prefilling syringes in advance rather than right before use, which can lead to bacterial contamination and growth. Transmission can also occur if medications are stored and prepared in the same workspace where used needles and syringes are dismantled and discarded or injections are administered, allowing for the potential of cross-contamination.