CHENNAI: There could be a silent epidemic of infectious diseases among postgraduate medical students in Tamil Nadu as many exposed to blood, body fluids and syringes don’t take adequate precaution to prevent infections before or after the event, a study has found.Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital researchers surveyed 752 PG students at three medical college hospitals in Chennai, Coimbatore and Salem and found nearly 69% had been exposed to blood or body fluid splash or were stuck by a needle while on duty.While a doctor is at risk of contracting blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis or HIV, a doctor with such infections may expose patients to a droplet of infected blood. “There is an urgent need for establishing a statewise surveillance system for monitoring of occupational exposure to achieve infection control among health care workers. These exposures can result in risk of infection and can cause serious mental ill-health,” said Dr P Praveen Kumar, a junior resident (general medicine) and author of the study. The study has been published in the Journal of Association of Physicians in India.Just 609 students (81%) took the full course of hepatitis vaccination though the vaccine offers up to 95% protection against infectious viral disease. At least 68.35% said they were exposed to unsafe blood at least once in the last one year, taking the average incidence of occupation exposure to 1.85 per year. It was found 50% of the exposure was caused by mucocutaneous splash of blood and bodily fluids and 30% of times it was needle pricks.What made it worse was many doctors didn’t follow standard precautions. More than two of five doctors said they did not take precautions such as wearing gloves because it was not provided, but an almost equal number did not wear them either because “they didn’t have the time,” or because they did not think it was important.Dr Satish Kumar, who is training in general surgery, said he did not opt for medication as the side-effects could make him sick. Senior doctors said they always urged students to meet counsellors at voluntary testing centres, but the reportage is not huge.

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