ndy_SF

Thanks, everyone, for all your great feedback. It's definitely helped me put my mind to rest. Incidentally, I talked with our hospital's needlestick hotline. I was told that I shouldn't be concerned with a clean needlestick unless my gloves were fairly covered in blood. Since my gloves were clean to the naked eye and I stuck myself with a clean, narrow guage (21g) needle, I am told that I should not be at risk. This is my takeaway. I will definitely do this from now on. Now if I could only do something about getting those *$^*# needlecaps off in a safer way...

This probably sounds dumb, but I haven't been able to find any information on this. I volunteer at a free clinic and was giving (ironically) a Hep A/B vaccination to a patient. I had trouble taking off the needle cover and stabbed myself with the needle. The needle was absolutely clean (the cap was only off the freshly opened needle in the time it took me to stab myself). The question I have is regarding the latex gloves. I had them on when putting new dressings on the patient's abscess (someone else cleaned up the old dressings, I just helped tape up the new ones). The gloves did not look bloody in any way. I realize the risks for transmission are low anyway, but was wondering if there was any data about transmitting with a clean needle through latex gloves that may have had exposure (though at a level where you couldn't see it on the gloves with the naked eye). Sorry for being a nervous nelly. I should know better, but the whole experience shook me up more than I thought. Rationally, I should know the chances of transmission are very small even with a dirty needle, I would just like to be able to put this one to rest in my mind so I can get back to business without thinking about it. Thank you for all your help...