and yet another

Autoimmune, and immune deficiency aren't the same thing. OSHA requires follow up for needle sticks- if your job is being irresponsible, you can go to the county health department for follow up- and reporting any absence of OSHA required follow up with them.... Even though it's not immune deficiency, I would think there should be some follow up lab work now, and in 3 months (not sure of the exact timeline).....also, call your PCP..... :) I'm sorry this happened, but it sounds fairly low risk unless there are other things going on.

I have never heard of autoimmune diseases being transmitted via needle sticks :)

needle stick injury at your facility has no protocol to follow? How about go to your ED and tell them needle stick injury on the job. They will assess your risk and go from there.

If you don't work at a facility that has an ED and you're concerned, go to the nearest ED. I'd have it documented, either way, if it were me. Better to be seen where that patient is.... but by the time you wrote this, you hadn't been seen, that patient might be discharged, so testing them for HIB/HIV wouldn't be an option.... you need to follow up with your employee health for sure too.

http://www.who.int/occupational_health/activities/5prevent.pdf

OSHA requirements for employers if they have an employee with possible exposure to blood born pathogens.....

http://www.orprecautions.com/needlestickact.html

http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/articles/2001/08/osha-compliance.aspx

OSHA doesn't "suggest" what it requires to be done for needlesticks, it fines facilities for not doing them....if your employer gives you many trouble w/this, find OSHA's website, and file a complaint.

the client has sle, is it possible that she has hiv also??( I feel depressed.

Please contact the OSHA to file a report. Contact your Primary care

MD and inform him or her of your injury at work and your report to the CDC.

This lack of policy is also putting other workers at risk as well as they

care for their patients.

OSHA is for the US, I am not in the U.S. so it is not within their scope.

where do you live??

the client has sle, is it possible that she has hiv also??( I feel depressed.

Why would lupus mean a pt also has HIV? They are two very different diseases. It's possible that the pt does have HIV, but that wouldn't be related to the SLE.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/332244-overview

it's an autoimmune disease, can't see why you'd jump to HIV.... you don't "catch" SLE, but you do with HIV/HIB.....

remember HIV is ACQUIRED.

the client has sle, is it possible that she has hiv also??( I feel depressed.

It's possible- but SLE is not a part of the 'usual' suspects with HIV, like pneumocystis, Kaposi's sarcoma, etc. I'd be willing to guess that the vast majority of SLE patients have no greater incidence of HIV than the 'normal' population.... SLE is not transmitted via blood exposure- it's AUTOimmune- the body reacts to something within itself, and causes the lupus....

Had a frightening needle-stick back in the mid-90s. Working @ level 1 trauma center in large eastern city. Pt brought to my ICU with head injuries (beaten with pipe). Pt was young African-American male and is very androgynously dressed, skin and hair carefully made-up, nails polished. To a cynical old b#st@rd like me it said 'male prostitute' in large letters.

I was starting an IV to draw some early labs and to replace the EMS line, using the familiar 'angio-cath' with the spring loaded inner stylet. At that moment he had a seizure and drove the stylet into the septum of my left thumb. There it hung with his blood filling the flash-back chamber and mine dripping down the length of the stylet.

DAMN, I thought. I'm never going to have sex again. (Actually -- that's the honest truth. Didn't think -- I'm going to get AIDS. Thought --- sex is over.)

Amazingly, that young man turned out to be negative for anything!! No HIV. No Hepatitis. Nothing. And after being tested for 18months, I had nothing also.

But here's what I thought you'd want to know, NewlyGrad. There turns out to be a secret 'club' of people who've suffered needle-sticks and similar. Many nurses and also many Lab and Resp people. Very very few people actually 'convert' to positive status. It turns out that it's actually NOT so likely that you'll get HIV from a needle stick.

You should of course be tested. I understand there are anti-virals you could get as prophylaxis -- and I would advise you to pursue that vigorously. And the pt should be tested. But you don't need to have extreme fear or depression. Lots of us have had worse needle-stick injuries and never got sick.

Hope this helps.

Good luck to you.

PapawJohn