Vol. 61, No. 1, January 2011 63 Original Article Needlestick injuries: A survey of doctors working at tertiary care hospitals of Rawalpindi Muhammad Khurram, Khushnood Ijaz, Hamama Tul Bushra, Naveed Younas Khan, Hafsa Bushra, Wajahat Hussain Department of Medicine, Rawalpindi Medical College, Rawalpindi. Abstract Objectives: To document frequency, nature and predisposing factors for needlestick injuries (NSI) in doctors working at tertiary care hospitals of Rawalpindi. Methods: This cross sectional survey was conducted at Department of Medicine, Rawalpindi Medical College from July 2009 to April 2010. Five hundred doctors working at various tertiary care hospitals of Rawalpindi were contacted. Each doctor was provided a specifically designed proforma focusing on number, nature, and predisposing factors for NSI which was defined as percutaneous injury caused by hollow-bore needles, suturing needles, scalpel blades and lancets. Frequency and percentage of collected data was sought. Results: Out of 500, 61.8% (n=309) doctors returned the filled proformas. Females were 50.8% (n=158). History of NSI was present in 85.1% (n=263) participants of which most common was from syringe needle (47.52%; n=125), surgical stitch needle (20.9%; n=55), and surgical blade (9.5%; n=25). Most of NSI took place while recapping needles (33%; n=87), surgical procedures (27.7%; n=73), and drawing blood samples (26.2%; n=69). Majority of these doctors 42.5% (n=112) attributed NSI to stress, 37.6% (n=99) to over work, and 19.7% (n=52) to carelessness. Conclusion: NSI due to syringe and surgical stitch needle are very frequent in doctors working at various tertiary care hospitals of Rawalpindi. Most of these are sustained while recapping needle and surgical procedures in stressful and overworked circumstances. Keywords: Doctor, Needlestick injuries (JPMA 61:63; 2011). Introduction Health care workers (HCW) are exposed to a number of occupational hazards. These include biological hazards like hepatitis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections, chemical hazards like medications, disinfectants and sterilants, ergonomic; incurred during lifting and transfer, and physical like radiation heat and noise etc. Needlestick injuries (NSI) are one of the biological hazards. NSI can be sustained while using a needle and afterward during recapping and disposal. Out of these 38% of NSI take place during using of needles while 62% occur afterward before and after disposal. 1 About thirty diseases like hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, syphilis, malaria, and herpes can be transmitted by NSI. 2 Of these, hepatitis B, C, and HIV infections are most dangerous. 2 Following NSI risk of transmission from infected patients to HCW are 3-10% for hepatitis B, 3% for hepatitis C, and 0.3% for HIV. 3 Exact magnitude of NSI is not known because of under reporting and poor surveillance systems. In an ordinary hospital HCW have 30 NSI annually per 100 hospital beds. 4 Estimatedly 6-800000 NSI occur per year in USA. 5 Such data from Pakistan and other developing countries is not available, though studies focusing frequency of NSI in various HCW cohorts have been done. 6,7 Hence, this survey was planned to note frequency, nature, and predisposing factors for NSI in doctors working at