International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | April 2019 | Vol 6 | Issue 4 Page 1442 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Lakshmi A et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2019 Apr;6(4):1442-1445 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article A cross sectional study on adoption of standard precautions among sanitary workers, Tamil Nadu Archana Lakshmi 1 *, Christina Mary Paul 2 , Thirunaaukarasu 1 , Gladius Jennifer 1 INTRODUCTION Health care providers come in direct contact with the blood, body fluids and contaminated items. Sanitary workers are at more risk of acquiring the hospital acquired infections. The risk of hepatitis B, C virus and HIV infections is high. Exposure can result from percutaneous injury, mucocutaneous injury, contact with non-intact skin. Compliance with standard precautions reduces the risk of exposure to blood and body fluids. 2 Standard precautions should be followed in all health care settings irrespective of the infectious status of the patients. Standard precautions include hand hygiene, use of personal protective equipment, appropriate handling of patient care equipment and soiled linen, prevention of needle stick/sharp injuries, environment cleaning and spill management and appropriate handling of waste. 1 Proper hand hygiene is cheap, most effective, easiest and foremost method of reducing health care associated infections. 3 Personal protective equipment is designed to protect the skin and the mucous membranes of the eyes, ABSTRACT Background: Hospital waste is a potential reservoir of pathogenic micro-organism and requires appropriate, safe handling. Sanitary workers entail to do waste collection, handling, storage and disposal. Hence they have higher chances of exposure to numerous risk factors. The objective of the study was to assess the adoption of ‘standard precautions’ among sanitary workers pertaining to hand hygiene, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), prevention of needle stick/sharp injuries, handling of soiled linen and finding out the reasons for non-adoption. Methods: A cross sectional study was done in two health care institutions in Chennai and Madurai, Tamil Nadu during January to May 2018. Institutional ethics committee approval was obtained. All sanitary workers willing to participate in the study were included. After getting informed consent, data was collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS 20.0. Mean, frequency and percentages were calculated. Results: Sanitary workers included in the study were 118. The overall hand hygiene was satisfactory among 35.6%. Only 62.7% were using gloves while handling waste. 54(45.8%) had NSI in last one year. Immersing soiled linen in hot water was done only by 15 (12.7%) before washing with disinfectant and autoclaving. Conclusions: The adoption of ‘standard precautions’ among sanitary workers is inadequate due to lack of proper orientation. Keywords: Standard precautions, Sanitary workers, Needle stick injury Department of Community Medicine, 1 KIMS and RC, Kanchipuram, 2 ACS Medical College, Velappan Chavadi, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India Received: 24 February 2019 Revised: 13 March 2019 Accepted: 14 March 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Archana Lakshmi P. A., E-mail: archan_27@yahoo.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20191068